History Main / ThePatientHasLeftTheBuilding

* At the end of the first arc of LightNovel/SwordArtOnline, Kirito pulls this after two years in a coma from the titular game to find Asuna.

* In ''[[Disney/TheRescuers TheRescuersDownUnder]]'', Wilbur tries escaping from the hospital in which he was confined after [[CrackOhMyBack hurting his back]], with the Doctor Mouse and his nurses chasing after him, trying to bring him back to the operating room.

-->--'''Marty:''' I'd protest, but it occurs to me you're unkillable.

* In ''[[Disney/TheRescuers TheRescuersDownUnder]]'', Wilbur attempts to escape from the doctor mice ''before'' the operation. Apparently they're used to this because they have a sign: "Patient Escaping."

** Another time,Roy found him drunk and soaked from the rain after running off. He dropped John at Dixie's place because he needed watching and Roy didn't have time to return him to Rampart. They have to undress him to wash and dry his clothes,but Dixie deliberately delays giving them back because she knows he can't leave naked and it'll force him to stay put a while and rest.

* ''ItazuranaKiss'': When Yuuko Matsumoto is admitted due to a duodenal cancer or ulcer (depending on the subtitles), and is required to have surgery and rest, she refuses to listen to any doctor's orders and leaves the building,in her hospital clothes, to get to a meeting related to the company she started!

* In ''FruitsBasket'', Rin is taken to the hospital to be treated for malnourishment. She wakes up when no doctors are around to check on her and, having no idea what she's doing there or why [[spoiler:she was not imprisoned in the Cat's room as she promised,]] she promptly left and began wandering the streets in a dazed stupor.
* ''TheTarotCafe'' has a rather unwilling example. [[spoiler:The abused child of an alcoholic is sent to the hospital by a tree spirit, after the kid's beaten so badly he'll likely die. The father, upon finding out about this, breaks into the hospital and steals his son out of it, arguing that he can't afford to pay for the care. [[AssholeVictim The dad is not mourned, when he dies by the story's end]].]]

* In ''TheRescuersDownUnder'', Wilbur attempts to escape from the doctor mice ''before'' the operation. Apparently they're used to this because they have a sign: "Patient Escaping."

* Corwin at the start of the first ''{{Amber}}'' book.

* In ''TheDresdenFiles'', Harry always checks himself out of hospitals the minute he's mobile enough to do so. Justified because he's a WalkingTechbane and fears that some innocent patient's life-support might short out if he stays.
* In ''Stickfigure: A Diary of my Former Self'', Lori ends up being sent to the hospital because her anorexia has her starving herself to dangerous degrees of skinniness. At one point, fearing the doctors will resort to force-feeding her via a tube down the throat, she tries to escape the hospital. The plan fails when the taxi driver she calls refuses to take her anywhere, since she still is wearing a hospital bracelet and thus has not been discharged. She then manages to pull the bracelet off, but's too dizzy from lack of food to get anywhere.

* In ''TheRescuersDownUnder'', Wilbur tries escaping from the hospital in which he was confined after [[CrackOhMyBack hurting his back]], with the Doctor Mouse and his nurses chasing after him, trying to bring him back to the operating room.

* In ''TheRescuersDownUnder'', Wilbur attempts to escape from the doctor mice ''before'' the operation.

* In ''ItCameFromTheDesert: Antheads'', the player has to escape from a hospital controlled by the evil antheads... in a wheelchair.

DoctorsOrders are powerful things, often able to keep even the most {{badass}} characters in line... but not this guy!

Whether he's just woken up from a ConvenientComa or the surgeon has just finished stitching him up after [[WeHaveToGetTheBulletOut getting the bullet out]], the medical advice -- either straight from the lips of TheMedic or suggested by a concerned loved-one -- is for him to rest up and hang around for observation in case of complications or side-effects. But no, HeroicResolve will see him through.

To qualify, there should be someone arguing the case that the patient should stay in bed, or an obvious attempt to evade hospital staff as he sneaks out. '''If he just gets up, grabs his coat and waves to the nurse on his way out, it's not this trope.'''

See also YouCanBarelyStand, ICanStillFight, JustAFleshWound.

!!Examples:

[[AC:AnimeAndManga]]
* In ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', after being beaten up by Vegeta and sent to the hospital, Goku repeatedly tries to escape the hospital to train (he actually succeeds once, but he's sent back to the hospital).
* ''ItazuranaKiss'': When Yuuko Matsumoto is admitted due to a duodenal cancer or ulcer (depending on the subtitles), and is required to have surgery and rest, she refuses to listen to any doctor's orders and leaves the building,in her hospital clothes, to get to a meeting related to the company she started!

[[AC:ComicBooks]]
* In ''Franchise/ArchieComics'', when Big Ethel wanted to care for a badly injured Jughead (he got hurt trying to run away from her), he fled the hospital.

[[AC:Film]]
* In [[Film/{{Thor}} the Marvel film]] named for him, Thor is exiled to Earth, where he is hit by a van and hospitalized. When he wakes up, he doesn't know where he is, so he flees the hospital, beating up everyone who tries to restrain him.
* In ''Film/SecondhandLions'', after Hub collapses, Garth and Walter take him to the hospital. A while later he wakes up and comes storming out of his room, demanding to know who put him there.

[[AC:Literature]]
* Corwin at the start of the first ''{{Amber}}'' book.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* Booth in the ''Series/{{Bones}}'' episode "Two Bodies in the Lab". He insists on leaving the hospital to go save Brennan.
* The Fourth Doctor does this in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E1Robot his first appearance]] on ''Series/DoctorWho''.
-->"You might be ''a'' doctor but I'm '''the''' Doctor."
* Faith in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' [[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E15ThisYearsGirl (episode "This Year's Girl")]] wakes up from a coma and leaves without authorization. (She doesn't sneak around, but she knocks out a few personnel on the way out who try to stop her.)

[[AC:NewspaperComics]]

[[AC:VideoGames]]
* In the level "Trauma" from ''VideoGame/HotlineMiami'', your character (who has just awoken from a coma) must sneak out of the hospital. It's the game's only StealthBasedMission, and your character will pass out if he exerts himself too much.
* In ''ItCameFromTheDesert: Antheads'', the player has to escape from a hospital controlled by the evil antheads... in a wheelchair.

[[AC:{{Webcomics}}]]
* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': Klaus Wulfenbach [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20080523 makes his escape in style]]: on a giant mecha while ''still'' in a hospital bed and surrounded by two nurses, [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20080526 to the exasperation of Dr. Sun]].

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

----

* ''TarotCafe'' has a rather unwilling example. [[spoiler:The abused child of an alcoholic is sent to the hospital by a tree spirit, after the kid's beaten so badly he'll likely die. The father, upon finding out about this, breaks into the hospital and steals his son out of it, arguing that he can't afford to pay for the care. [[AssholeVictim The dad is not mourned, when he dies by the story's end]].]]

* In ''It Came from the Desert: Antheads'', the player has to escape from a hospital controlled by the evil antheads... in a wheelchair.

* ''Manga/{{Monster}}'': Johan is supposed to be in bed after brain surgery for a while, but Johan sneaks out and takes his sister with him. This however gets on a later stage with the locksmith, which becomes the first victim we see Johan execute in the series (the doctors he murdered are on another issue, that is indirect and as a "favor" to Tenma).

* In ''TheDresdenFiles'', Harry always checks himself out of hospitals the minute he's mobile enough to do so. Justified because he's a WalkingTechbane and fears that some innocent patient's life-support might short out if he stays.

* The Fourth Doctor does this in his first appearance on ''Series/DoctorWho''.

* Faith in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' wakes up from a coma and leaves without authorization. (She doesn't sneak around, but she knocks out a few personnel on the way out who try to stop her.)

* Booth in the ''{{Bones}}'' episode "Two Bodies in the Lab". He insists on leaving the hospital to go save Brennan.

* Faith in ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' wakes up from a coma and leaves without authorization. (She doesn't sneak around, but she knocks out a few personnel on the way out who try to stop her.)

* In the level "Trauma" from ''VideoGame/HotlineMiami'', your character (who has just awoken from a coma) must sneak out of his hospital room. It's the game's only StealthBasedMission, and your character will pass out if he exerts himself too much.

* In one episode of ''BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', an injured Bruce Wayne considered his Batman duties important enough to defy his doctor's orders to stay in bed and recuperate.

Said patient will often PullTheIV.

To qualify, there should be someone arguing the case that he should stay in bed, or an obvious attempt to evade hospital staff as he sneaks out. '''If he just gets up, grabs his coat and waves to the nurse on his way out, it's not this trope.'''

* In ''DragonBallZ'', after being beaten up by Vegeta and sent to the hospital, Goku repeatedly tries to escape the hospital to train (he actually succeeds once, but he's sent back to the hospital).
* ''ItazuranaKiss'': When Yuuko Matsumoto is admitted due to a Duodenal Cancer or Ulcer(depending on the subtitles), and is required to have surgery and rest, she refuses to listen to any doctor's orders and leaves the building,in her hospital clothes, to get to a meeting related to the company she started!

* From ''ArchieComics'', when Big Ethel wanted to care for a badly injured Jughead (he got hurt trying to run away from her) he fled the hospital.

* In [[{{Film/Thor}} the Marvel film]] named for him, Thor is exiled to Earth, where he is hit by a van and hospitalized. When he wakes up he doesn't know where he is, so he flees the hospital, beating up everyone who tries to restrain him.
* In ''Film/SecondhandLions'' after Hub collapses, Garth and Walter take him to the hospital. A while later he wakes up and comes storming out of his room, demanding to know who put him there.

* In ''It Came From The Desert: Antheads'', the player has to escape from a hospital controlled by the evil antheads... in a wheelchair.

[[AC:WebComics]]
* ''GirlGenius'': Klaus Wulfenbach [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20080523 makes his escape in style:]] on a giant mecha while ''still'' in a hospital bed and surrounded by two nurses, [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20080526 to the exasperation of Dr. Sun.]]

* In ''TheRescuersDownUnder'', Wilbur tries escaping from the hospital that he was confined in after [[CrackOhMyBack hurting his back]], with the Doctor Mouse and his nurses chasing after him, trying to bring him back to the operating room.
* One ''{{Herman}}'' cartoon featured a doctor telling the nurse "Keep a close eye on this one", in reference to a patient half-out of bed and wearing roller skates.