On its surface, that looks like a multi level fusion at the L4-L5 and L5-S1 levels. I'm a little thrown off because I don't see a spacer and usually that low, they take use an ALIF approach so he should also have the pedicle screws from the front. This was likely because the two discs were either extremely degenerated or, more likely for his age, he had repeated herniations at those levels that were inflaming his nerve roots. basically, all of you that have had sciatica, multiply the debilitating pain by 1,000,000.
This is effectively the same type of procedure i was referring to in my post on the first page and UHC denied me for about six months. i had to navigate the greatest collection of appellate labyrinths that were clearly designed to dissuade the policy owner and make them give up. i never thought about murdering anyone (other than myself) through the process but as i said on the first page, the chris rock "i understand" meme would apply if my speculation that he had to go through a hellacious process for months on end while in an extreme level of debilitating pain. If one infers that he got the procedure done from that social media profile pic, i wonder if they denied the coverage post-op. that would be weird given that most surgeons/health care companies aren't stepping into the o.r. without pre-approval. but who knows, he may have had someone else go through it or something else made him snap.
that said, for the six months i was fighting with them, i would be lying if i did not say i felt a great deal of hostility towards every single person from uhc that i had to deal with including the preliminary litigation process.