It's always nice to visit a hospitalized person. Unfortunately, due to hospital rules (including but not limited to germs, protocol, diet, or the like), certain things are not allowed in.
Why not smuggle it in? Maybe it's something as simple as a candy bar that isn't allowed in due to the patient's dietary restrictions or just being frowned upon by doctors. Maybe it's a pleasure or vice of theirs that is certainly banned like a cigarette or a cigar (in spite of the fact that plenty of doctors smoke -- albeit they do it outside). Maybe it's a furry friend who wants to cheer up the convalescent, although if the dog is too big and/or noisy, the jig is likely up. Also worth noting that if the person who does the smuggling is caught, then they could either have the object confiscated or they could be kicked out, if not banned altogether. The patient themselves sneaking in or having the forbidden item delivered to them isn't underheard of, either (i.e., take-out food).
Compare with Jail Bake (the jail/prison equivalent) and Snacksploitation (the movie theater equivalent). See also Coat Full of Contraband, Trojan Horse, or False Flag Operation. If it's a pet, it might be because there are No Animals Allowed. Since this trope is usually done with compassionate intentions, it's unlikely to end in a Sickbed Slaying.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- A Case Closed story has a hospital visitor smuggles in a pistol while visiting their father... but the gun isn't for the father. They are forced to kill off another patient staying in the same ward using that pistol.
Comic Books
- In Jem and the Holograms (IDW), after Pizzazz's car accident, the rest of The Misfits manage to smuggle in while visiting her in the hospital her beloved Siamese cat Madmartigan, to her joy.
Films — Live-Action
- Played with in Hard to Kill. Andy is a nurse herself who sneaks in a small kitten to a comatose Storm (with the joke being "Would you like a little pussy today?").
- In Joni, the title character's boyfriend climbs up several flights of stairs to sneak a puppy inside of his jacket to her after she was left paralyzed in a diving accident.
- St. Vincent (2014): While Vincent is in the hospital after his stroke, Maggie and Oliver smuggle his cat into his room to keep him company.
Literature
- The Boys from Brazil: While recovering in hospital from gunshot wounds, Ezra Liebermann is visited by his Nazi-hunting protege. The young man asks if Liebermann has the list of adoptive fathers kept by Doctor Mengele. Before answering, Liebermann produces a pack of cigarettes and a lighter, remarking that his personal nurse is "an angel of mercy" for giving him these supplies. Liebermann has the list but uses the lighter to ignite it before his protege can read it. By Liebermann's ethics, hunting Nazis is A-okay, but targeting their children, even adoptive clones of Hitler, is out of bounds.
- Chicken Soup for the Soul: A Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul story had a high school girl sneak a box of cherry cordials to her best male friend, who was terminally ill in the cardiac ward and forced to eat "mushy-looking food".
- At the end of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, when Harry is in the hospital wing, Dumbledore reveals Fred and George Weasley attempted to give Harry a toilet seat as a get-well gift (calling back to when Harry overheard their mother warn them not to blow up a toilet at the beginning of the school year). Madame Pomfrey caught them and refused to allow it for hygiene reasons.
Live-Action TV
- 7th Heaven: The first season Thanksgiving Episode offers a downplayed and invoked combination of this and a Jail Bake. Eric's sister Julie, having hit rock bottom due to her drinking, is allowed to detox in the Camden home under his and Annie's guise. In the midst of this, she requests Matt to sneak her in a beer. When he flatly refuses, she angrily kicks him out of the parents' room and starts yelling how much she hates him.
- Doc: An example of the animal variant occurs in one episode, wherein kid character Elliot ends up with life-threatening complications after a routine surgery. His friends Justin and Raul try and fail to get Elliot's beloved dog certified as a therapy animal so he can visit him in the hospital. Finally, as Elliot's condition worsens, Dr. Cassidy carries the dog into the room in spite of regulations. Elliot improves after the visit.
- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: In the season seven episode "Raw", Fin sneaks in Munch's favorite food, a fig shake, while Munch is hospitalized after being shot.
- In Love, Lies and Murder, David sneaks in fast food to his hospitalized daughter, Cinnamon, who unsuccessfully tried to kill herself after killing her stepmother under his demands.
- My 600 Lb Life:
- Relatives of morbidly obese hospital patients will often sneak in forbidden, high-calorie food to them to Dr. Now (and the audience's) immense chagrin.
- Subverted with Steven Assanti. Although a news report states that the primary reason he was kicked out of a previous inpatient weight loss in Delaware was that he had ordered a pizza to his room, the main reason was his utterly abusive treatment of the hospital staff.
- Scrubs: When JD and Turk spend the night keeping a dying man company, he complains that the nurse won't let him have a cigar, wondering what harm it could do since he's already terminal. JD explains to the patient that he's on an oxygen tank and smoking a cigar could cause a giant explosion. But JD and Turk do grant his request for a beer.
- In Trauma: Life in the E.R., the family of a young man who was critically injured in a car accident wrap up something to look like a baby to see him, although it was a pug, who nearly blew their cover due to his barking.
- A variation occurs in Wendy Williams: The Movie. While in rehab, Wendy has one of her employees sneak in her banned cell phone to remain in the know to the outside world and all the celebrity gossip (which is very much Truth in Television for substance abuse rehabilitation programs).
Music
- A line in "Only God Can Save Us Now" by Over the Rhine, a song about the memory care unit in a nursing home: "Sneak us in some whiskey 'cause it's probably not allowed."
Stand-Up Comedy
- John Mulaney plays this for Black Comedy in Baby J, talking about how on his first day in rehab for drug abuse, still high, he tried to talk the doctor into smuggling him more drugs.
Mulaney: [doctor voice] "We are a rehab. I cannot give you a Schedule II narcotic under Pennsylvania state law." And I said, "Pennsylvania state law? Well, what if we go to a pharmacy in New Jersey?" You see, I thought he was telling me about a predicament that we were both caught up in.
Western Animation
- The Simpsons: Subverted in "So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show". After an April's Fools prank by Bart lands Homer in the hospital, Moe sneaks him in a can of Duff beer. Since beer was the cause of his hospitalization, he rejects it in fright, which causes Barney to "suffocate" Homer with a pillow to end his pain and he then uses a water fountain to "escape" from the premises, to Homer and Moe's confusion.
Real Life
- As mentioned in the Wendy Williams: The Movie example, cell phones are usually banned from rehabilitation programs out of fear of the patient using the phone to either leave prematurely or to procure more substances. This is played with regarding hospitals in general. While in some circumstances, wireless phones are still restricted due to indeed interfering with sensitive medical equipment, thanks to the obvious need to have access to them and technology marching on, phones aren't outright banned in most situations.
- In certain scenarios, the banning of pets in hospitals is averted. Obviously, cats or dogs wouldn't be appropriate for a critically ill/comatose Intensive Care Unit patient, but there are highly acclaimed programs where animal companions are allowed to cheer up patients or offer practical assistance. This can be along the lines of a guide dog or even an emotional support animal.
