Yes, this sounds screwy because it is screwy. Heaven forbid they do the surgery that could fix his problem. Yeesh. He said they were even trying to blame the reaction on something he ate even though he ate nothing out of the ordinary and even though the onset of the reaction timed perfectly with the onset of the medication (Lamictal). Fwiw, all the medicine did (other than the blotchy rash) was make him dizzy and space out.
I'm now out a good night's sleep (which means I might wind up sleeping through way too much of GAFilk this year), and he's out over $100.