>I agree with the relative who is a surgeon. Things do go wrong when you're plunging long metal instruments into body cavities full of organs and large blood vessels, especially in thin people where there can be as little as 2cm (just over 3/4 inch) between the anterior abdominal wall and the retroperitoneum containing the aorta amongst other things. But it is the measure of the surgeon how he (or she) handles complications.
>
>Before drawing conclusions I'd want to know exactly what happened between discovery of the problem and the patient's arrival in intensive care without legs. I'd also be interested in knowing how often this has happened in this particular facility and the complication rate of the surgeon. Until I had such information I would limit myself to feeling very sorry for this person who thought he was having a straight-forward procedure but ended up in extremis and without his legs.

Retroperitoneum -- that's the word I was thinking of! ;-)