After spending cumulative months in waiting rooms, the stories of failed orthopedic surgeries are appalling. Most are not the fault of the physician OR the patient, just a fact of life. The thing that really aggravates most patients is that doctors pay little or no attention to the complaints of pain. They dismiss it, think there's nothing they can do about it (mustn't make the patient ADDICTED!), or believe the patient is malingering.
There's a belief by many people (including physicians) that patients with back pain are exaggerating, trying to get disability and in general just milking the system.
I used to work in the medical field. I related this story one day, and a physician in the audience came up to me and said 'guilty as charged'. Turns out he was an orthopedic surgeon who developed degenerative disk disease. He said 'there's no way you can describe the pain to someone unless you've had it - and most doctors haven't had it'.
My husband also developed a rapid-onset cataract (very common in disabled people) and had the implant. Everything went fine until the film grew over the implanted lens. The Ophthalmologist removed the film with the YAG laser and detached his retina. The retinal surgeon said he couldn't do the repair because the patient has to remain in a position not tolerated by his neck and confinement to a hard collar. He's totally blind in that eye.
As a mechanical engineer I always felt that lawyers were scum of the earth. The lawyers in my case were the only ones who behaved ethically