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No. 20 specialists = 20 different opinions. You stand corrected.

No, you stand naïve. Here's how it often works. Likely only one or two of those specialists has actually seen the patient, or even his file. Typically, the others are asked to make a diagnosis based SOLELY ON THE DATA AS PRESENTED TO THEM by the attending physician/specialist. Therefore, the downstream diagnoses are only as good as the thoroughness and/or bias of the original presenter. Also adding to this is the tendency of doctors in the same institution or locale to "circle the wagons" and not undermine each other. This is more true in some disciplines than others (especially orthopedists, at least in my area), but it can happen with any of them.

In this particular case, the family's attempts to bring in a specialist from outside the local area were thwarted by the court. I find that most troubling, because this is precisely what my family would attempt to do in a similar situation.

Well in my case I had about the same number of opinions, all coming from the files of 1 doctor, and they all got it wrong. It took ME to do my own research and diagnose my self.