Is it permissible to combine and shorten the prayers (Dhuhr and Asr, and Maghrib and Isha) after an emergency surgical operation, given that recovery from anesthesia took a long time?

Scholars have differed regarding the obligation of making up prayers for someone whose mind was incapacitated by anesthesia (banc). Some are of the opinion that there is no obligation to make up the prayers because it was caused by something permissible. Others hold that making up the prayers is obligatory because it is a fainting spell caused by human action. The Hanbalis, however, obligate making up the prayers unconditionally. Sheikh Ibn Uthaymeen chose the view that making up the prayers is obligatory if the loss of consciousness was by one's own choice, and not obligatory if it was not by one's choice. The opinion that making up the prayers is obligatory is more cautious and more absolving of responsibility, and it requires repeating the prayer without shortening it.