There was a time when it was fashionable to remove tonsils, even if they were healthy. I believe the reasoning was that tonsils served no purpose and the procedure was least unpleasant the younger the patient was.
“Your tonsils now, they guard your throat. they stand there, two guards, with hand grenades and bazookas, and anything bad that comes into your mouth, they fight it off. Well, in your case your tonsils have lost the war. In fact, your tonsils have gone as far as to join the other side and they’re going to kill you if we don’t take them out.”