No matter how perfectly a surgery seems to go, the recovery process is still heavily dependent on the patient. Surgeon Jeffrey Parks talks about how frustrating this situation can be:

No matter what you do, no matter how textbook the operation, no matter how perfectly you manage the recovery phase, sometimes the patient fails to progress. You bang your head against the wall searching for an underlying reason. But the explanation is quite simple. A patient needs to want to get well. They have to want it with every ounce of their being. It doesn’t matter how hard you work or how many tests you order. Once a patient loses the heart for the good fight, the ultimate outcome is inevitable.