Sentence A: She is recovering from a surgery
Sentence B: She is recovering after a surgery
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2She is recovering from surgery, or she is recovering after surgery. From an operation, or after an operation.– Yosef BaskinMar 11, 2022 at 15:22
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2I’d probably use “after” if the surgery was successful. And “from” if the surgery was botched, unsuccessful or did more harm than was expected.– JimMar 11, 2022 at 16:06
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Welcome! Proofreading requests are not a topic covered here, so to ask whether either of the options is best, please edit to tell more about any concerns you have about either of the choices.– Andy BonnerMar 11, 2022 at 18:32
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1 Answer
You can't go wrong with choosing either one. They're used interchangeably both in US English and Commonwealth English on reputable medical websites:
- The Royal College of Surgeons of England on recovering from surgery
- Johns Hopkins Medicine on recovering from surgery or intensive care
- Cancer Council Victoria (Australia) on recovery after surgery
- Stanford Health Care on recovering after surgery
Logically speaking, however, there's potential for a slight difference in meaning. Consider this headline: Tiger Woods 'recovering' after surgery following roll-over car crash. There is ambiguity of scope in the word "recovering": it can be referring to the surgery or the car crash or (most likely) both. If the headline had used from instead of after, it would theoretically have narrowed the scope to the surgery only, although readers would likely have applied their knowledge of car crashes and expanded the scope anyway in their interpretation.
Again, it doesn't make a huge difference and they're equally appropriate, but from makes it clearer that the recovery is primarily associated with the surgery itself rather than any other preceding event or condition.
