Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-172.250.98.20-20131022021621/@comment-3250527-20131022022705

In Episode 13 (given you watched the entire anime series), when Kirito and Asuna were alone in the KoB Headquarters, Asuna mentioned "what was happening to their real bodies." Kirito then explained that people were disconnected from the game for several hours, and during that time, the SAO victims were being transported to hospitals.

In the Light Novel (Volume 1), this was explained by Kayaba in the «Tutorial», that all of the players would be taken care of, and that their real bodies would shortly be transported to hospitals.