On the local chatty network news shows they always say that.
The latest was a whole family that were run over by a wayward car (played several times for titilation value).
Instead of expressing apologies for making broadcast material out their plight, or even offering sympathy, they all said a couple of times each how “lucky they are” that everyone will live. After months in the hospital, and with extensive recovery efforts.
In war time, a lot of people say it is. Naturally, though, I don’t think anyone would disagree that it’s luckier in almost any situation not to be hurt at all.
I’ll go along with Speaker, having heard of soldiers whose personal items kept a bullet from penetrating their skin. I recently heard of a guy whose camera stopped an insurgent’s bullet.
A big Turkish shell put me ‘ass over head’
and when I woke up in me hospital bed
and seen what it had done, and I wished I was dead
'never knew, there were worse things than dying.
For the most part, sure, it’s better to be wounded but not killed then to be wounded and killed.
Of course, not being wounded at all is even better.
As Zebra points out, though, sometimes there may be situations when the wounded party would prefer to be dead, for whatever reason–pain, disability, what have you. Usually, though, you don’t have people saying, “she sure is lucky to be in a permanent coma rather than being dead.”