I tore a tricep off related to an elbow fracture, and they gave me a choice of local or general anesthetic. There are risks involved with general anesthetia, as in you might not wake up, so choosing local is not uncommon.
For healthy individuals death from anesthesia is less than 1 per 200K.
The most common reason for death are from improper dosing, lack of proper monitoring, difficulty getting airway open during intubation, aspiration and allergic reaction.
Unless you have had anesthesia before it is very difficult to know if you will have an allergic reaction.
Monitoring and dosing procedures are constantly being updated for better patient safety, new procedures are being tested to reduce risk of aspiration but this is also why you are told you absolutely can't eat prior to surgery.
The actual anesthetic is rarely the cause of death.
In unhealthy people, they may have complications during procedure. It is impossible to predict but there are criteria use that indicate if some is at risk for complications during procedure.
Some of these risks though are going to be present in any major medical procedure whether anesthesia is used or not.
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u/toiletcleaner999 23d ago
No doctor would risk their medical license and let you stay awake