If you go to a top surgeon you will not die
STOP with irresponsible wishful thinking downgrading the quality and minimal usefulness of this forum! Everone of us can die even in the hands of the best surgeons. It already happened with Dr Pa. (one of those very well hidden, he didn't reach PB "paradise") and Dr. Gu. for example, that are among the pioneers and do LL based on biological principles of Ilizarov since more than 32 years. There's not enough safe control of clots getting to lungs, coronary arteries or brain. An accident with general or even epidural anaesthesia or sepsis (even in the cleanest hospital) can also happen and even more things.
Plus, no one of us has data to classify the risks on any scale. Not even doctors, researchers and all Pubmed articles together. And what would be the base unit of the scale? If 10 is death, what would be for example not being able to run anymore? It's only a death scale that he/she's asking? Like 5 equals 50% of chance of dying? Don't you realize how unhelpful it is to classify our own surgery on such a scale? If we thought we have 20% of chance of dying (2 points?) would we do it?!
A "scale of risks" will always be personal and can only be the outcome of individual evaluation of information gathered, consultation with doctors and our own personal compromisse with risk-benefit and minimising risks by trying to chose a top doctor, method of lenghtening, segment to lenghten, previous physical preparation, intense physiotherapy and discipline in everything, like taking all due medication.
However, despite all this, I agree that death rates seem very low, despite all the majority of LLers that don't come to this forum, despite those that never meet each other except after being tranfered from hospital to recovery/physiotherapy centers (and thus unable to tell some stories like in P.B., also despite all the LL clinics spread around the world, like in China, India and Paquistan, that we never hear of (fed by thousands of new rich "wanna be taller" kids' families), and still despite all Pubmed articles have ommited so far the cases of real deaths and even severe crippling.
And finally let's not forget the risk of becoming crippled. Doesn't it matter for this "death scale"?!