On June 1st, 2022, a lone gunman, Michael Louis, walked into a medical office building in Tulsa, OK, and with a semi-automatic rifle and a semi-automatic handgun, shot and killed 4 people prior to turning his gun on himself and taking his own life. This was the 233rd mass shooting in the United States in the first half of 2022,1 and given the nation’s ongoing mass shooting epidemic, the story’s national interest waned quickly. Coverage by Tulsa’s leading daily newspaper, Tulsa World, continued, however, providing additional details of the tragic incident.2
Readers may be questioning the relevance of yet another mass shooting in the United States to the international pain community. The assailant, Mr. Louis, suffered from chronic low back pain, and among the victims were the orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Preston Phillips, who had performed a spinal fusion from L3 to S1 on the patient on May 19th, as well as another physician.
