[Someone]

For those wondering about that “elderly”: the researchers only looked at “100% fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 to 99 years who underwent one of 17 common emergency surgical procedures in 2011-14” (https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4381), so they didn’t check whether this applies to non-elderly patients.

It also is worth noting that this is published in the BMJ Christmas Issue (https://www.bmj.com/about-bmj/resources-authors/article-type...), so it should be taken with a grain of salt.