My late uncle was offered this after years of being a carpet fitter and back issues, they didn't tell him until the day he went into the hospital for surgery that it could result in paralysis.
It's anecdotal and of course extremely rare but he walked out, and I don't really blame him.
I'd make sure your friend is fully aware of the risks and how rare they are before going in as the shock might put him off for life, I can fully understand why someone might evacuate the building in that scenario.
I'm guessing that might have been a long time ago?
IIRC doctors have been making the risks extremely clear for a long time, at every opportunity because of a few cases where some were not.
I see so many horror stories of celebs having back surgery that has gone wrong. (Hulk Hogan and Ozzy Osbourne) and they have the money for the best surgeons. That I would try all the options first unless surgery is no other option.
Something to remember with some of the celebs, especially in America is that American surgeons and doctors can be a lot more willing to push for a surgery early, and IIRC don't/didn't have the same regulations about best practice that the UK does so might try for different methods that are less well tried out but are fancier/newer/cost more.
Also remember that Hulk was a wrestler so probably loads of damage and then additional damage after surgery, and almost certainly used steroids which could have affected the outcome. [edit] my brother reminded me his signature move was one that would have caused shocks/damage to his spine, so if he did that after any surgery...[/edit]
Surgery today is often very different to even just 10 years ago because of things like improvements in the tools used to train and perform the surgeries, better training and oversight in general for a lot of the surgeons, and much better imaging meaning that the surgeons today can have a significantly better idea of what they're going in for before they ever get the patient to the operating room.
My mother had multiple hip surgeries over the years and some of the methods used for her first couple were pretty barbaric and did a lot of damage to surrounding area needing weeks in hospital, these days an operation for the same condition is done with a much smaller incision (far less muscle damage) and they'll know exactly what they're doing before the first cut* with the result that the patient is often out within a day or two.
*One of her ops required an emergency courier to a central depot in london as they needed a different hip joint size to the selection they'd got on hand ready for the op, these days they'd have mri/ct scans to give a better idea of the size than a couple of standard x-rays.
