After Luigi Mangione was apprehended last week and charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, America was astonished to learn that the 26-year-old was the privileged son of wealthy parents with the world seemingly at his feet.
Yet, the accused assassin is also thought to be afflicted with spondylolisthesis, a debilitating back problem.
Here, Amiee Thomason, a 28-year-old single mother living in Oklahoma City, reveals her own devastating experience living with the same excruciating condition…
I was shocked when I saw the X-ray of Luigi Mangione’s back that went viral on social media.
He, like me, seems to suffer from spondylolisthesis.
There’s been a lot of speculation about motive and what might have driven Mangione – if he indeed turns out to be guilty – to kill a man in cold blood. The pain caused by his condition – which is brought on by slipped vertebrae in the spine – has been a big part of that discussion.
Of course, it goes without saying that murder is always wrong. But I also know, from first-hand experience, what torture it is to live with spondylolisthesis.
It’s the agony of two bones rubbing against each other. It’s debilitating – and constantly in flux. It can be an intense sharp pain, or a burning. At other times, it can send nerve pain shooting down both legs.
Amiee Thomason (pictured), a 28-year-old single mother living in Oklahoma City, reveals her own devastating experience with spondylolisthesis.
Thomason didn’t know she had spondylolisthesis until after she’d given birth to her daughter in 2018. (Pictured: Aimee’s spine with the slipped verterbrae).
At my worst, it would leave me in tears, sometimes bed-bound for days.
It’s no exaggeration to say it feels like a death sentence – to be so young and have a back problem of this sort.
I was born with a congenital ‘bilateral pars defect’, which is a sort of stress fracture in the lower spine. I didn’t know I even had the condition until I gave birth to my daughter, aged 21 in 2018.
The stress on my body from giving birth worsened the fracture and, in the months following, a terrible pain emerged.
I hoped it would fade, but it only got worse. So, in 2019, I went to a chiropractor who suggested a routine of exercises and prescribed some cortisol shots in my back.
Still, the pain worsened. I had to start sitting in the bath to shower. And during my day job as a hairdresser, I had to sit on a saddle stool and started missing shifts.
I was also drinking a lot – after a while, it was the only thing that kept me going.
By 2022, aged 26, I had almost stopped work entirely and I’d ceased being able to do all the things other young, single mothers could: I couldn’t take my daughter to the playground or watch her at her dance recitals because standing and sitting still were both now agonizing.
There’s been a lot of speculation about motive and what might have driven Mangione (pictured) – if he indeed turns out to be guilty – to kill a man in cold blood. The pain caused by his condition has been a big part of that discussion.
An X-ray of Luigi Mangione’s (pictured) back went viral on social media.
Spondylolisthesis also ruins your sex life – it messes up the nerves that connect you with down there and it can leave permanent damage.
A friend of Mangione said that the accuser killer once told him that he wasn’t in a relationship because, ‘[Mangione] knew that dating and being physically intimate with his back condition wasn’t possible.’
My doctor told me that sexual dysfunction is more prevalent in male spondylolisthesis patients and that, while they’ll often still be able to perform in bed, they might not be able to enjoy sex or reach completion because of the pain.
In my case, damage to my nerves meant it took me forever to reach orgasm.
So, I found myself constantly faking it with my then-boyfriend (the first man I dated after splitting from my daughter’s father). After a while, that got pretty exhausting, and it would start arguments because my boyfriend couldn’t understand.
He pushed me to see a specialist, which I did, finally receiving news that I needed surgery. But it also precipitated my decision to breakup with my boyfriend – as I’d realized how traumatic the treatment and recovery would be.
The fact I needed surgery was doubly devastating because I’m a self-employed, single mom and only have the bare-minimum health insurance coverage.
My daughter and I moved in with my mother, leaving my own rental apartment, and I asked my insurer if they would cover the procedure.
They said no, and that I had to do physical therapy and a series of epidural steroid injections to manage the pain.
I complied, once. But the injection made me pass out.
In the end, I was lucky and instead was able to go through Mercy Charity, a wonderful organization which matches you with a sponsor. They found someone who remained anonymous and committed to cover most of the bills, which otherwise would have cost me $227,000.
I had the surgery in October. It was extremely invasive and terrifying.
They cut me from the front as if I were undergoing a caesarean section. They then placed a small metal cage in front of the section of my spine that had slipped, turned me over and placed rods into two of my vertebrae, fixing them to the cage to hold my spine in the correct position.
By 2022, Aimee (pictured with her daughter) almost stopped work entirely and ceased being able to do all the things other young mothers could.
There have been suggestions online that Mangione had undergone a similar surgery like, but that something had gone wrong.
When I woke up, the relief from the pain was instant. And (as I discovered after recovery) straightening my spine even made me a little taller.
I had to stay in hospital for ten days, but the surgery was undoubtedly the best thing I ever could have done.
Of course, I’m still healing from the operation, but the chronic pain is gone.
I’ve seen some suggestion online that Mangione had undergone surgery like mine for his condition, but that something had gone wrong during the procedure, leaving him in an even worse state. Though I don’t know if that’s truly the case.
I have also read unconfirmed stories about his use of illegal psychedelics to manage his pain. I can understand that impulse.
Personally, I’ve never tried ‘magic mushroom’ therapies – but I wouldn’t be against it.
Before my operation, I was using the anti-inflammatory drug Voltaren and taking regular saunas to ease the pain. I also became a medical marijuana user, which helped me a lot, and I still use it for pain management to this day.
Thankfully, I’ve always resisted taking opioids. It is all too easy in America to jump on the pain management train and find yourself unable to get off.
But that’s often easier said than done. And if you’re in that much pain, you might just try anything.
