Luigi Mangione, the suspected killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, has not revealed anything about why he brazenly shot Thompson to death but Mangione’s medical history suggests that his spinal injury led to his downward spiral. The photo of the X-ray of his spine, sourced from his X profile, is going viral and social media users exclaimed that he was probably subjected to a botched surgery. “I’d kill someone too if they did this to me,” one user wrote explaining that probably Mangione had a lumbar fusion.
In the X-ray, his spine looked stapled with four screws.
Back surgery changed Mangione
One of his former classmates at the Gilman School in Baltimore told the NYT that he believed that the back surgery changed Mangione. He even went dark after the surgery. Mangione started at a co-working, co-living space in Honolulu where he became friendly with many. RJ Martin, the owner of the space, said Mangione told him that he had a back issue and was looking to get better in Hawaii.
A different kind of firmer bed was arranged for Luigi at Surfbreak and the back issue was such that Luigi probably had to undergo multiple surgeries. But the back pain did not get in the way of his day-to-day life as he went surfing as well and had to take bed rest after.
“His spine was kind of misaligned. He said his lower vertebrae were almost like a half-inch off, and it I think it pinched a nerve. Sometimes he’d be doing well and other times not,” Martin said. Martin said Mangione confided in him that he wasn’t in a relationship because he knew that dating and being physically intimate with his back condition wasn’t possible. “I remember him telling me that, and my heart just breaks,” Martin said.
Mangione went absolutely crazy after surgery
According to the account of many people close to him, the back injury and the surgery changed everything for him and he went “absolutely crazy”. It’s not yet clear how the back injury took place and whether there was a botched surgery. Some accounts said the injury took place during a surfing incident in Hawaii and for the surgery, Mangione event went to Japan.