History Main / BackAlleyDoctor

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ronald_Brown John Ronald "Butcher" Brown]] was notorious for performing gender transition surgeries in the transgender community in the 1970s, at a time when the criteria to qualify legitimately were exceptionally strict with ~1% of patients qualifying, despite not being qualified as a surgeon; he operated on patients in motel rooms and in his garage, allowed patients to pay for surgery by working as surgical assistants, failed to hospitalise a patient for a life-threatening infection, killed at least one patient outright, and lost his medical licence entirely for "gross negligence, incompetence and practicing unprofessional medicine in a manner which involved moral turpitude".[[note]]Yes, [[Recap/CSIS5E8ChChChanges that CSI episode]] was based on real life.[[/note]] In the Eighties, he started to perform surgeries in Tijuana while soliciting patients from San Diego, was featured on a current-affairs show as "The Worst Doctor in America", and was finally locked up for practicing medicine without a licence. Then, after driving a taxi for a year, he started doing illegal surgeries ''again'', for several more years, until being put away for good after he performed a wildly illegal surgery on a man with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_integrity_dysphoria Body Integrity Dysphoria]], botched it resulting in the man's death by gangrene[[note]][[Recap/{{CSINYS01E06}} Yes]], this man may have inspired ''two'' CSI episodes[[/note]].

** An episode featured a sex change doctor who treats male-to-female transsexuals who don't want to wait for the year-long therapy process conversion usually takes. She performs her surgeries in a storage unit.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ronald_Brown John Ronald Brown]] was notorious for gender transition surgeries in the transgender community, at a time when the criteria to qualify as a patient legitimately were exceptionally strict, despite not being qualified as a surgeon; he operated on patients in motel rooms and in his garage, allowed patients to pay for surgery by working as surgical assistants, failed to hospitalise a patient for a life-threatening infection, killed at least one patient outright, and lost his medical licence entirely for "gross negligence, incompetence and practicing unprofessional medicine in a manner which involved moral turpitude".

-->"... Did I ever tell you about the time I performed an appendectomy with a rusty sardine can? And once I was caught short without instruments once and
removed a uterine tumor with my teeth. ..."

The Back-Alley Doctor typically operates in a dimly lit, grungy room in a cheap apartment or NoTellMotel with minimal surgical tools and equipment. Sterilization is optional, often involving cigarette lighters, hot plates, or that bottle of whiskey he's been [[QuickNip sipping on]] all day, including during the surgery. The whiskey is likely to double as a painkiller and is safer than any pills he may have on hand. For ''really'' bad cases see ComicallyIneptHealing.

* Referenced in ''Manga/DeathNote'', when Kira and the Task Force are trying to find Mello after he blew up a building to escape the Japanese police, reasoning that (since they NeverFoundTheBody) he must be alive... but that there's no way he's uninjured. [[spoiler:They're right; Mello survived the explosion but was ''badly'' burnt [[TwoFaced on the left side of his face and torso]].]] They talk to numerous doctors and nurses all over the place and mention that some of them were not legitimate. None of them recognized anyone that looked like Mello as Linda had drawn him years ago (that drawing being the only image of Mello they have). It is not known who treated Mello's burns or how, although popular [[EpilepticTrees fan theory]] (particularly among the {{Yaoi Fangirl}}s) is that it was his companion, Matt, who is not known to have any medical knowledge or training.

* ''Fanfic/AGameOfCatAndCat'': Doctor Dude ([[OnkyKnownByTheirNickname real name unknown]]) and his accomplice Mr. Adams run an underground clinic where they treat everyone from undercover secret agents to local gangs to the Yakuza. There are a lot of hijinks with the job - a lot of the patients have grudges against each other, Doctor Dude only speaks English even though his clinic is in Japan, he frequently has to deal with injuries caused by the supernatural, and the ghosts of those who die at his operating table come back to haunt him. Which is apparently very common in the medical profession, but most doctors can't see ghosts. Doctor Dude doesn't really help his case either, considering his habit of [[HumanResources stealing the organs of his dead patients]].

* In ''Literature/TheSistersGrimm'', the local dentist is Frau Pfefferkuchenhaus. As in, the gingerbread house witch from ''Literature/HanselAndGretel''. She admits to having no medical training whatsoever, and when her patient mumbles about seeing her license, she gives him more anaesthetic.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* In ''Literature/ImpracticalMagic'', there is fierce competition for healers in this WizardingSchool to get practice time and become good enough to earn favor. As a result, when they are not spreading tripwires on high stairs or trying to startle cooks doing knife work, they will gather at Hotspur Ally (a.k.a. Blood Ally) where people can come for cheap and less than licit medical treatment.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Video]]

* In ''Film/Batman1989'', Jack Napier, the man who will become the Joker, visits a gangland back-alley surgeon in an attempt to get his face restructured after he takes a bullet to the face followed by a plunge into toxic waste in a particularly nasty encounter with Batman. The surgeon lacks decent tools and his skills are left in question. Ultimately, the gangster's face is transformed into a horrid SlasherSmile. Upon seeing his deformed and horrible discolored face, the newly born Joker [[DrivenToMadness bursts into hysterical laughter]].

** Dr. Tenma comes across a teenage girl serving as one of these for a poor community of Asian immigrants who would otherwise be unable to afford medical care.

''[[Creator/TimDorsey Serge A. Storms]]'': In ''Cadillac Beach'', Serge takes an acquaintance to a drunken, unlicensed doctor to receive treatment for a relatively minor gunshot wound and the incompetent doctor kills the patient. Despite this, Serge argues that the doctor is clearly excellent at his job due to being able to correctly diagnose his unlucky patient as dead.

* ''Series/ForeverKnight''. In "The Human Factor", Janette gets shot (in TheReveal that she's turned mortal) so VampireDetective Nick Knight takes her to Dr Natalie Lambert (TheCoroner and Nick's LoveInterest) to get patched up. Natalie is ''not'' happy as Janette is wanted for murder and they could both go to prison for helping her (not that Natalie hasn't saved Nick's life on occasion this way).

** ''Series/IronFist2017'': In "[[Recap/IronFist2017S2E5HeartOfTheDragon Heart of the Dragon]]", Danny Rand is seriously injured but refuses to go to a hospital, so Ward Meachum calls in his girlfriend whom he says is a doctor. She points out [[NotThatKindOfDoctor she's actually an anesthetist]], and though she patches Danny up, tells Ward that he's ''not'' to call on her for this kind of thing again. Still, it was an improvement from when they called in Claire Temple to patch up Danny in "Lead Horse Back To Stable". Claire had run out of medical supplies thanks to all the vigilantes she'd been patching up, so [[MeatgrinderSurgery had to use a staple gun]] to close Danny's wound.
** {{Deconstructed|Trope}} in [[Recap/ThePunisher2017S02E13TheWhirlwind the final episode]] of ''Series/ThePunisher2017''. Billy Russo has been shot three times and forces a back-alley doctor to take the bullets out at gunpoint, and given that the doctor's already [[INeedAFreakingDrink hitting the bottle to steady his nerves]], the RemonstratingWithAGun doesn't make his hands any steadier. As he refuses anesthetic [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome Russo passes out after the second bullet is removed]], then wakes up to find the doctor has stolen all his money and left him to die in a garbage dumpster.

* ''Series/{{Mo}}'': Due to his illegal work activity during his pending asylum case, Mo refuses medical attention when he is shot at a grocery and goes to Chien, a tattoo artist, who patches him up and sends him home with some drugs. Chien's tendency to do this bites him in the ass when he does something similar for a diabetic thug, whose leg then needs to be amputated.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'' features a couple operating in [[TheCityNarrows Downbelow]] from time to time. Even Dr. Franklin, the station's chief medical officer, secretly runs a small clinic down there that [[spoiler:doubles as the underground railroad for unlicensed telepaths]]. In "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS01E21TheQualityOfMercy The Quality of Mercy]]", Franklin investigates one such doctor, only to learn two things: 1. this back-alley doctor's daughter is ''smoking hot'', and 2. that she is using a bit of black market ImportedAlienPhlebotinum that heals her patients by [[CastFromHitPoints giving of her own life energy]]. When an escaped mass-murderer holds her daughter hostage and forces her to use the machine to heal his own wounds, [[spoiler:she proceeds to ReverseThePolarity, and transfers a severe chronic disease she has been suffering with into his body, killing him painfully.]] After being responsible for that, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone she feels that she can never work as a healer again]].

* Mario from ''WebVideo/ThereWillBeBrawl'' never actually went to med-school. Sort of a RunningGag and BrickJoke for his long list of previous professions.

* Gvidon Vishnevskiy from ''WebOriginal/WithinLapenko'' is not only an artist, but also a doctor. He helped Zhilin recover from bullet wounds using his art and some unorthodox methods.

* The prohibition-dodging, moonshine-smuggling characters in ''Webcomic/{{Lackadaisy}}'' call up a horse doctor [[ShoutOut named]] [[Film/ADayAtTheRaces Dr. Quackenbush]] (who looks a little like [[Creator/MarxBrothers Groucho Marx]]) when some small-time rivals raid their establishment and one of them gets shot.

The Back Alley Doctor typically operates in a dimly lit, grungy room in a cheap apartment or NoTellMotel with minimal surgical tools and equipment. Sterilization is optional, often involving cigarette lighters, hot plates, or that bottle of whiskey he's been [[QuickNip sipping on]] all day, including during the surgery. The whiskey is likely to double as a painkiller and is safer than any pills he may have on hand. For ''really'' bad cases see ComicallyIneptHealing.

He's often the only medical recourse available to criminals, who may make up his entire clientele, due to legitimate doctors having to report gunshot wounds and other injuries inflicted by violence to the police. A Back Alley Doctor funded by organized crime might have as good or better equipment and practices than a legit doctor and an office in a criminal front.

If more skilled, the Back Alley Doctor may provide plastic surgery as a means to hide an outlaw character's identity. Can cross with OpenHeartDentistry if one of the reasons he's not a doctor is that he was trained in a completely different medical field; veterinarians working on humans is a common occurrence. Horse vets operating on wounded gangsters is practically a trope in and of itself due to the established links between organized crime and horse racing.

A BackAlleyDoctor might also double as a QuirkyDoctor.

* ''Film/TheBanishment'' (2007) has three Back-Alley Doctors. The first two come to perform an illegal abortion on the female lead, then the third one is called in when the latter doesn't recover from the surgery.

** The player can be one for Julius Caesar if they decide to do the quest "Et Tumor Brute?", performing brain surgery to remove a tumor. To succeed, you need to either have an extremely high Medicine stat so that you actually know how to do the surgery... or have an extremely high ''Luck'' stat and succeed by pure luck despite not knowing what the hell you're doing (you can even admit as much after the fact).

He's often the only medical recourse available to criminals, who may make up his entire clientele, due to legitimate doctors having to report gunshot wounds and other injuries inflicted by violence to the police. A Back Alley Doctor funded by organized crime might have as good or better equipment and practices than a legit doctor and an office in the LegitimateBusinessmensSocialClub.