“minimally invasive craniotomy”
How minimal can it be and still be a hole drilled in your head to get at the goo inside?
Maybe it was minimally because they suspected the answer before drilling? No surgery is without risk either. Just the administering of anesthesia can cause problems not to mention what you can “catch” while in the hospital.
Regarding him, why back to Az? Is not John's Hopkins and Bethesda Naval Hospital close by DC? This has the sounds of not coming back any time soon to me.