UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting: what is the rare back condition the suspect reportedly suffered from?

Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old suspect in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, appears to have suffered from a rare back condition called spondylolisthesis, according to posts linked to him on the social media site Reddit.

While not confirmed, archived Reddit posts under the username “Mister_Cactus” and elements of Mangione’s other social media accounts, as well as an account by a friend, seem to confirm that he suffered from a back condition that caused him chronic pain.

“Fwiw I’m 25 years old with a L5/S1 fusion. It’s clear to me that the day my spondy went bad to the point where I felt it every day, I had crossed the threshold into surgery though it took me a year to realize this,” he commented in April this year, according to the archived posts.

Spondylolisthesis is a fracture or weakness in the vertebrae of the spine, sometimes caused by playing certain sports as a child, which can cause the vertebra to shift or slip, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. If the slip is classified as high-grade, it can cause “significant pain and nerve injury and to need surgery to relieve their symptoms and prevent further deterioration”.

Surgical treatment can involve spinal treatment and “stabilization with rods and screws”. Mangione’s banner image on X included an X-ray image that appears to show rods and screws inserted into a the lower spine.

In one Reddit post, from July 2023, Mangione complained of pain that had grown more extreme after a surfing accident and a slip, writing: “Yea when I went surfing 1.5 years ago, I experienced sciatica for the first time. Basically the extension movement destabilized my spondy. A few weeks later I slipped on a piece of paper and my right glute locked and right leg shut down for a week.”

RJ Martin, a friend and former roommate of Mangione’s told CNN on Monday that soon after Mangione moved to Hawaii, he was “in bed for about a week” with back pain after a surfing lesson.

“It was really traumatic and difficult, you know, when you’re in your early 20s and you can’t, you know, do some basic things,” Martin said.

Mangione encouraged other Reddit users to get surgery. “To be honest, once the pain becomes low-grade but all the time, it could be time for surgery,” he wrote in April this year.

“I mean the situation sucks for sure, but the solution isn’t to retreat into a bubble.”