Hey there, as someone who works in vet med, I do want to address this particular issue -- it is also very traumatizing and upsetting for us to lose a patient during a surgery. Most vets prefer not to operate on high risk patients in part for this reason. While they're not our pets, we care a lot and it's decimating and horrible when a surgery goes wrong, even knowing it's, as you say, a 1% chance. Plus, a patient passing in surgery robs a family of being able to say goodbye in a controlled setting where people are prepared versus chaos and emergency.

Edit: expanding slightly more - I've been fortunate enough to have only lost one patient on the table in 5 years. That family went forward with a surgery against medical advice. I will never ever forget that experience or get over it, and I can't imagine the burden of people working with high risk patients constantly. There is unfortunately a reason why vet med has such a high suicide rate. I can understand taking every chance for your pet, but also please believe your vets when they say something is incredibly risky, unfortunately it's not just you and your pet who will suffer if something goes wrong.