Family of suspect in health CEO's killing reported him missing after back surgery

[speak easy]

Mangione, 26, was reported missing on 18 November, police told the New York Post, after family members became worried that they had lost touch with him. A message from relatives had earlier been circulated to his circle of friends asking for help finding him after Mangione had undergone back surgery a few months previously.

As detectives begin to piece together the suspect’s history, one line of inquiry is the chronic back problems that he appears to have suffered since childhood. According to CNN, Reddit posts that match the description of Mangione talked about wrestling with spondylolisthesis, a condition where a vertebra, often in the lower back, slips out of place.

The condition had become much more severe, the Reddit user said, after a surfing accident. “My back and hips locked up after the accident,” the user said, causing “intermittent numbness” which left him “terrified of the implications”.

The owner of Surfbreak, a housing community in Honolulu, Hawaii, where Mangione lived for a few months, told CNN that Mangione had struggled from the back pain that could force him to stay in bed for days. “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,” RJ Martin said.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/10/brian-thompson-killing-suspect-family

[Silent Type]

1. Apparently, he got treatment, but doctors couldn't avoid nerve damage according to LM's friend

on CNN an hour or so ago.

Sounds like his beef is with doctors, not insurance. That’s not to say insurers don’t suck.

[regnaD kciN]

4. Sounds like his beef ought to be with himself...

When you have a back issue that serious, you shouldn't be surfing if you're not willing to accept the possible consequences.

Someone who commits murder because he's mad at doctors not being able to cure him despite their best efforts is no hero to me, especially when the damage should have been avoidable. Did Christopher Reeve call for the head of his medical insurance company to be killed?

[Silent Type]

5. Excellent point/post.

[wnylib]

8. Good points, but there might be more info on

the financial end of things. What if his condition worsened because his insurance company refused to approve some treatments? Or, did the insurance company deny pain killing meds?

If Mangione thought that his doctors were at fault, he might have gone after them.

There is a reason why he chose the CEO of an insurance company. I am NOT saying that it was ok to shoot someone. I am only saying that I think there is financial info that we don't know yet.

[LisaM]

10. That was my thought too.

Living in Hawai'i and surfing are not "basic" for most people. I have never surfed in my life and I have spent most of my life near water. It's also not something you should do with a slipped disc.

He has every right to live his life as he chooses, but that was a risk.

[Irish_Dem]

2. His comments in court make him appear young, naive and somewhat foolish.

He appears to understand what is happening to him, his answers were not psychotic, but he
does not seem to have absorbed that he may spend the rest of his life in prison.

Arguing over minutia and irrelevant points is not going to help him right now.

[BigmanPigman]

3. You have to walk in his shoes to understand...

"The full quote from Atticus Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird" is: "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... until you climb into his skin and walk around in it," essentially meaning you can't judge someone until you fully understand their perspective and experiences, like "walking in their shoes.".

I saw my doctor yesterday and I had a discussion with him while he injected my scalp and neck with 32 injections of Botox for daily migraines. He said something similar to Atticus and he could not say what and how he would react if he personally experienced so much death and suffering as a result of greedy health insur practices.

Health insur practices are the result of greed and sadism.

[jeffreyi]

6. If he was on the powerful pain killing meds...

Could that not affect one's psyche?

[slightlv]

9. Did u even consider he might not

Have been able to get strong enough meds, or enough to make it through a month? Or was sick and tired of all the freaking hoops we have to jump through just to try for any pain relief?

Hard drugs made him do it... natch! Between the fight to get pain relief and fighting the darned insurance companies to release the script, you lay writhing in pain. But we're all just druggies, right?

This is my 3rd day in bed, writhing in my own pain from MY back,which has kicked up a fibromyalgia flare. Do you think I'm in a good mood? Ive not slept for 2 nights. Believe me, there have been days when my pain is so intense I could murder. I have til Friday to hold on and have to worry about paying property taxes and utilities in addition to the cost of meds on a total of 1500$.

Depression does not cause pain, but constant pain causes depression. And when you're in pain you'll likely strike out at anyone. Ive done my share of apologizing.

My back surgery didn't work either. I have enough metal in my back and hip I set off the alarms going INTO stores. Now fibro on top of that, with lupus side flares... and talk about SS cuts take worry and pain over the top. Should the guy murder someone? No. Do I understand his pain? Yes. I don't have to imagine walking in his shoes... i do it everyday of my life since I was 25. I'm going on 69. Believe me, I have had very dark thoughts, smart mouth with pain docs, and an indescribable rage since the idiots voted for Idiocracy live.

No, I may be alone in this, but I feel for what the kid had been living his whole life... and I'm well aware the $$$$ he cracked up with his medical costs that weren't covered, or denied. Insurance companies think only slackers have back problems, however they are diagnosed.

Im just hanging on til Friday so I can get my meds refilled. Until then... im bed bound.

[Skvngr]

11. It's only people who've experienced

Anything similar to what your doing through who can really understand it. I feel for you greatly, I've had a couple friends go through injuries that haunt them to this day and the amount of crap they have to do just to get the pain meds that have been Prescribed to them is inhumane. I drove a friend to a pharmacy once after a surgery, he had called ahead to confirm everything was good to go but when he got there they looked him up again and he was flagged as a user. He had gone through his meds and was in excruciating pain and the pharmacist simply said there was nothing she could do. It took a full 24 hours before he was able to get his meds. He said at some point the pain overwhelms you so much that you almost don't feel it and that was the saddest thing I'd ever heard anyone say.

Edit inhumane sp

[jeffreyi]

12. Geeze.

Hope it's better for you soon. I am just now getting thru a bout of sciatica, no sleep for weeks. My experience doesn't come close to yours, but now I can see a little bit how chronic pain could really mess one up, whether the meds are available or not.

[Cha]

7. TY... So Bizarre... he ghosts his family & friends

for months and comes out of hiding to assassinate the CEO of UHC. And doesn't seem to have had any back pain while on the murder journey??

I read the whole article.. and I don't understand what he was saying about the corrections he made to the prosecutors?