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There are risks with every procedure and medication.

A dose of ibuprofen could give you Stevens–Johnson syndrome or TENS and you end up in a burn war for months.

Patients should be made aware of all the risks for any treatment, but it would be impossible to avoid they edge cases even with relatively basic medical care.

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Most people lack the medical literacy to understand any of this. People don’t read their letters telling them to not eat before surgery, are they going to read the list of potential side effects of a medication? How many people read the information sheets that come with their prescription medication?

When my wife worked check-in for a surgeon, she used the line, "Good morning ${PATIENT_NAME}! What did you have for breakfast today?" as a shibboleth for sending patients home to reschedule.

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