"Beat the Odds"

I was listening to the radio, and there was a commercial for a cancer center. The patient said that the center helped her "beat the odds". Is that possible?

If you had a 20% chance of survival, and you survived, did you beat the odds?

Does the hospital's skill level affect it? If one hospital has an 80% survival rate, and the rest have 10%, then would the term "beating the odds" be appropriate if you went to that 80% hospital?

Or does the term just never make sense? Getting a dealt royal flush wouldn't be beating the odds, you just happened to get it that hand.

Thoughts?

I believe that 'beat the odds' is a reasonable thing to say for any single event result where the odds of that result where less than 50%. It of course does not mean that the under 50% event will never happen.

So every time you win a standard casino bet, you beat the odds? Meh.

Yeah, I think it's acceptable, and appropriate, for the ad in question. You're talking about a one time event with bad odds. Yeah, they beat those odds

Quote: FinsRule

So every time you win a standard casino bet, you beat the odds? Meh.

No, because you're talking about an individual event, not a one time event.

However, the guy who took a suitcase full of cash and put it on black for one spin and won and went home, did beat the odds.