i think a human being can only stand so much of being cut up. like plastic surgery - some results are great (although much more involved surgery, im sure) and some are terrible. my aunt, for instance, went in to hospital for some benign thing - leg problem - and ended up having it get infected and then somebody dropped her moving her from one bed to another and she got another gash in her leg and that got infected. then, staying in the hospital she got bedsores, etc. - she was in and out for a while - got better - but then suddenly had a problem and had to go back. well, this time they did some probing around in her (pushing on her stomach or in her stomach) and the stomach was ruptured. she had even asked them to stop (night nurses) and that what they were doing was painful. they did not listen and continued on as if they had every right to do whatever they were doing. she died a week later - after telling us that she had said 'no' to what they were doing.
i think it really depends on the hospital, the doctors, the nurses, what kind of care you are getting, how clean the place is, if they stand by 'consent' or they maintain their own right to deal with patients as they please. i mean, if a patient ASKS for a heart operation -then they're accepting the risk. but, people can die from much less than a heart operation in the hospital. so going to a hospital for life prolongation might be the worst mistake one could make.
i think if i were about 70-80 - and in fairly good health - i'd go out in the wilderness instead. live in a cabin. eat healthy. die happy. avoid hospitals. now - i might not say this when i get to be that age - due to medication needs - but i hope i don't have load of pills to take. i think that is as bad as just getting the heart attack over with and dying in a favorite chair.
btw, recently my other aunt's husband went in for esophagus operation (to repair valve or something) and the doctor hit his spleen and it started bleeding uncontrollably and they had to REMOVE it. now, he cannot get a temperature over 100 or he'll be right back in the hospital. hmmm. how often does that happen? the doctor said that the reason this happened was that his internal organs had stuffed into the higher cavity and thus made him more risky to operate on - but that sounds really strange to me. i'm not a doctor -obviously, but i wonder what % of people this happens to. i think this operation is a fairly new one, though - and perhaps that is part of the problem.
i realize that doctors put themselves on the line a lot - and that having accidents is probably a certain percentage of learning to be a doctor. but, for serious operations - they shouldn't have a 'newer doctor' doing a procedure that an older doctor can, imo. at least have some guidance.