Bloody hell! Just as well you got that second opinion!
I had a similar situation with my 84-year-old father a few years ago. I brought him to a private specialist in Ireland who said he had two hernia at 5 grand each plus a 3-night stay in hospital. Since the earliest he could schedule the op was 3 weeks later, I brought my father to Holland where he'd previously been living with me and where he still had health insurance. Within 48 hours he was seen by a surgeon who showed him he had only one hernia and operated on him as an outpatient with no hospital stay required.
Since there's no 2-tier public/private health system in Holland, the doc had nothing to gain by diagnosing a second hernia.