/u/michellesabrina (history of medicine flair) answered a question on the historical treatment of appendicitis in this thread which I think covers your question.

Here's a brief history of the of the appendectomy that I found interesting. It was written in 1927, so it ends at the turn of the century, but it's the early history we're interested in. If you needed a surgery that didn't exist, yes; you would die. I've read that there was a time when appendectomies were a fad, in which case it'd be possible that you wouldn't have had an appendix to become diseased, but I don't have a scholarly source for that; I hope /u/michellesabrina or another redditor can comment on that.