Man facing surgery has nothing to lose in hopeless state (11)
I believe the answer is:
desperation
'hopeless state' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'man facing surgery has nothing to lose in' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'man' could be 'des' and 'des' is found within the answer.
'nothing' could be 'o' (O resembles 0) and 'o' is present in the answer.
'in' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for desperation that I've seen before include "Complete lack of hope" , "A state without hope" , "Recklessness" , "hopeless state" , "Abject hopelessness" .)