Luigi Mangione became a supporter of the therapy that improved his life after he made the difficult decision to have spine surgery last year for persistent back pain.
On Reddit, he frequently shared updates on his recuperation and gave advice to those suffering from same ailments, urging them to resist medical professionals who advised them to put up with their suffering.
However, the posts noticeably lack specific worries about corporate greed in the health insurance sector. Those seem to have come to light only later, in a handwritten note discovered following Mangione’s arrest as a suspect in the murder of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare.
Law enforcement officers claim that the brief text bemoans the influence and financial gain of health insurers and mentions parasites in the healthcare system. In his first public remarks since his arrest in Pennsylvania, Mangione yelled about an insult to American intelligence as he got out of a patrol car and was shoved into a courthouse by sheriff’s officers.
In an interview with NBC New York on Thursday, a top New York City police official stated that there is no proof Mangione was ever covered by UnitedHealthcare.
Nevertheless, the murder has raised a lot of questions about whether he had a negative personal experience with the medical system.However, Mangione’s Reddit posts following his 2023 operation indicate that he was extremely happy with the results and was at last free of chronic agony. He urged people not to be alarmed by terrifying tales of botched surgery. He also mentioned an earlier this year backpacking trip to Asia.
About six months ago, after he lost contact with loved ones, the 26-year-old Ivy League graduate seemed to have ceased posting on social media.
Although Mangione’s arrest shocked family and friends, not much is known about his recent physical and mental state.
Mangione’s Reddit articles discuss spondylolisthesis, a spinal disorder that arises when a vertebra slips out of alignment due to a fracture. If the bone presses against spinal nerves, it may cause excruciating pain.
According to Mangione’s social media posts, the illness, which can have its roots in childhood or an injury, began to significantly affect his life in recent years.
After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s and master’s degree, he lived in Hawaii for a while beginning in January 2022 and worked for the Santa Monica-based car-buying website TrueCar until 2023. Mangione’s back problem grew worse during her six-month stay at Surfbreak, a co-living facility in Honolulu, partly due to an incident while surfing.
Mangione had voiced increasing worries about the pain, according to Josiah Ryan, a spokesman for R.J. Martin, the owner and founder of Surfbreak. He was concerned about how it would impact romantic relationships in addition to losing up on fitness and leisure activities.
According to Ryan, that was a recurring motif during his stay there. He didn’t whine a lot. Therefore, it wasn’t as though he was bringing it up all the time. However, those who knew him well understood that this was an important aspect of his existence.
Mangione announced his decision to have surgery on Reddit in July 2023.
I got caught in this loop for a year, all the while putting my life on hold in my 20 s and damaging my nerves while I waffled on the decision. I have surgery scheduled in two weeks and I keep wondering why I was so afraid of it, he wrote.
The operation was successful, based on his posts.
An image posted to an X account linked to Mangione showed what appeared to be an X-ray of a metal rod and multiple screws inserted into his lower spine.
Surgery was painful for the first couple days, but I was shocked that by day 7 I was on literally zero pain meds, Mangione posted on Reddit in August 2023. Obviously will be awhile until I get into rigorous activity, but it was way less of a big deal than I had anticipated.
Medical experts say treating back pain is almost always a challenge.
In the gross majority of treatments, surgery is when everything else has failed to provide relief, said Dr. Jason Pittman, co-director of the Spine Center at Boston s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He said doctors generally try conservative treatments like physical therapy, injections or medications before surgery.
Even people with health insurance can face thousands of dollars in bills from a surgery depending on their deductible and other factors, though it s unclear whether Mangione experienced any of those issues.
Experiencing chronic back pain can also significantly impact mental health, said Dr. Padma Gulur, a pain specialist with Duke Health.
If you have underlying mental health issues anxiety, depression your pain can be worse because you have way more suffering, Gulur said. But, the second aspect is pain can push you into anxiety and depression.
Little is known about Mangione s mental state in recent months, but it appears he was withdrawing from close relationships. Since-deleted posts on X show a friend repeatedly reaching out and getting no response.
His family reported him missing to San Francisco authorities in November, police said.
Earlier, while in college, Mangione posted on Reddit about experiencing severe brain fog and restless sleep.
In a July 2018 post, he said his grades were suffering and he had considered dropping out of school. But ultimately, staying in college has at least let me maintain some semblance of normality, he wrote.
His last Reddit post is dated May 17, but other statements around that time suggest he wasn t experiencing unexpected complications or renewed back pain. He appears to be advocating for the type of surgery he received months earlier.
He posted in early April about the gear he brought on a two-month backpacking trip through Asia that included some cross-country motorcycling, saying he had found the perfect balance between minimalism and practicality.
In late April, he advised another Reddit user with a back problem to keep trying different surgeons and, if necessary, convey an inability to keep working.
We live in a capitalist society, he wrote. I ve found that the medical industry responds to these key words far more urgently than you describing unbearable pain and how it s impacting your quality of life.
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Kelleher reported from Honolulu. Associated Press writers Tom Murphy in Indianapolis and Devi Shastri in Milwaukee contributed to this report.
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