Great question. But gosh how awkward it is for them!!! My surgeon pays for the local hotel conference room for our monthly WLS support group and he lectures often. At one of the early ones I went to, while covering the very graphic portions of surgery on a PowerPoint, someone blurted out and asked if he’d ever lost one on the table. He stopped everything and became very somber. He took the question very seriously and the discussion shifted to the importance of communication and pre op health and that statistically it really doesn’t happen much and that no, he’d never lost a patient. It was a very important question because it opened up the fears that many of us in the audience had- this is life changing surgery and might I die during it. Yes, it’s always a possibility because of the very nature of surgery. I had two disks replaced in my neck and could have been paralyzed, or worse. I was never so scared in my life and I clung to my two sons as I was wheeled off to the operating room. It’s always a possibility. Ask lots of questions, even if they seem stupid but especially if a response would calm your fears. I mean yesterday I asked about abnormal pain. I JUST had my gall bladder removed, almost the same surgery so I know what to expect (kind of) He smiled and said dear you’re going to be in pain, it’s surgery. You will get through it but if something doesn’t feel right, you’ll know it. Pick up the phone and call us, twenty times if you need to. Then he winked at me. I’m figuring that meant you BETTER NOT call twenty times....I feel much more sure and calmed after my pre-op visit.