How does Sheldon go to hospital even when he used to decline to go there?

Question

We all know that Sheldon is very careful about germs and does not go around the sick people. That is why he declines to go to hospital. In the episode "The Engagement Reaction" (Season 4, Episode 23), where Howard's mom fell sick, Sheldon says:

Leonard: Sheldon, Let's go!

Sheldon: To the hospital?!

Sheldon: Full of sick people?!

Sheldon: Oh, I do not think so?!

In the latest episode of current season "The Viewing Party Combustion" (Season 9, Episode 21), he goes to hospital and there are many instances of this. What changed? How come he goes to hospital now even he has germ-phobia and used to decline to go to hospital?

Answer 1

Sheldon has gone to the Hospital multiple times, before and after "The Engagement Reaction". He doesn't like doing it, but he's normally guilt-tripped into it, as part of social convention. Even in "The Engagement Reaction":

Penny: Okay, you know what? You are unbelievable. You buy all these superhero T-shirts, but when it’s time for you to step up and do the right thing, you just hide in the laundry room.

Sheldon: Fine, I’ll go. Just for the record, my Aunt Ruth died in a hospital. She went in to visit my Uncle Roger, caught something and bit the dust a week later. The two of them now share a coffee can on my mother’s mantel.

He'll whine about it, like he does everything he doesn't like, but he'll do it if pushed enough.

Show wise, they only show the whining or germophobia if it's "funny" or "important to the plot". In the last episode, it was not.

In season 3's "The Adhesive Duck Deficiency", they had Sheldon drive Penny to the hospital for a dislocated shoulder. Plot wise, they found it funnier to play up the Sheldon sees Penny naked, and Sheldon has to drive aspects instead of the germaphobe aspects. When he has said he's too evolved to drive.

Answer 2

Sheldon nine seasons in is a very different character in some ways from the person he was in season 1. Season 1 Sheldon would never consider having sex with a person simply because of the unpredictability and lack of control of the fluid exchange. But in the nine years since he's adapted many of his behaviours. Its' entirely possible that his hospital hissy fit was off screen or just didn't happen.