Both of my children were born with ventricular septal defects. My older daughter’s closed by the time she was three, but the younger one still had hers at the age of eight. The older she gets, the less likely it is that the defect will close on its own, but her pediatric cardiologist takes the attitude that if it’s not causing her any more trouble than it has (none at all, that is), it’s not worth doing the surgery. He says she may not be able to get into the space program, and I’ve discovered that she can only get expensive health insurance, but all things considered, I wouldn’t advocate a healthy person of any age undergo a surgery that isn’t likely to improve her quality or quantity of life.
[ insert standard non-medical-personnel status here ]
as an additional note: anytime the body undergoes general anesthesia, there is an element of risk involved. my mom (who used to work as an office manager in a Physical Therapy department, and had once been a nurse) relayed this story from one of the doctors there:
the head of the medical department needed surgery on his heart; two valves needed either replacing or repair. since this was their chief they were working on, the hospital assembled its best personnel for the team. the first surgery was done on the valve that posed the greatest risk. it was successful, recovery was fine. the second surgery was then scheduled to take care of the lesser problem. the surgery itself went fine… but they could not revive the patient from the anesthesia! he died without recovering conciousness.
and you can bet they’d been busting their butts, doing their best to revive him! it is considered very bad form to lose one of your own doctors on the table.