# What percentage of people never have major surgery?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-people-never-have-major-surgery/472866>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 15, 2008, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-people-never-have-major-surgery/472866 "2008-11-15T15:54:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2008, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-people-never-have-major-surgery/472866/1 "2008-11-15T15:54:48Z")

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In the developed world say, are there statistics for those who never have major surgery in their lifetimes? More generally, is there a stat for how many people are never seriously sick until the day they die?

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**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2008, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-people-never-have-major-surgery/472866/2 "2008-11-15T16:33:56Z")

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Does it count if they don’t survive the one surgery the tries to save their life? In my EMT days we hauled in alot of badly injured people who ended up not making it.

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**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2008, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-people-never-have-major-surgery/472866/3 "2008-11-15T16:47:30Z")

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Wouldn’t that be proving a negative? No surgery, no record. My father never had surgery his whole life until his aneurysm, which killed him. He even still had his tonsils and appendix, at age 69.

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**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2008, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-people-never-have-major-surgery/472866/4 "2008-11-15T16:56:18Z")

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Well I could ask it, what percentage of people who reach say 70 years old in the developed world will have major surgery at least once?

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**Author:** ![Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alive_At_Both_Ends)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2008, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-people-never-have-major-surgery/472866/5 "2008-11-15T17:36:19Z")

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What counts as “major” surgery?