Less than 1%

I took my Mom to the hospital today, to attempt corrective surgury for an abdominal aortic aneorism. This was a scheduled surgury that has been in the planning for about a month. She had to see her PCP, cardiologist and a vascular surgeon and everyone OK'd her for the surgury. At 80 years old, any surgury is major. Everyone gave her the green light, but everyone wanted to list all the 'bad' things that 'could' happen. Now, I know, that they have to do this to cover their butts from a malpractice law suit. This list had many possibilities of things that could go wrong, and I could see that it definately got my Mom's mind spinning and upset her. The doctors and I had explained to her that the corrective surgury was much more desireable to what could happen if it burst, and she would be in an emergency situation that almost certainly end in a bad outcome.
Now, this morning, just before she was going into surgury, the doctor again retold her of the bad things. And, again I could see that it upset her. His major statement, in an attempt to ease her fears is that "there is less than a 1% chance of having a heart attack and possibly death." At that moment it hit me. ANY percentage, above zero chance of Death, is not a good thing. A 1% chance of death makes the 99% chance of survival much less appealing than the number should imply.