Most who meet Dr. Pauza quickly realize his compassion and his common-sense, pragmatic approach used to help others began during his “out-of-the-ordinary” childhood experiences, laboring on his family’s farm. His childhood of welding gates, raising cattle, and planting crops may not be acceptable by today’s woke culture, however his experiences led him to value common-sense approaches in treating patients in need, and to respect and follow the Laws of Physics and Nature. This common-sense perspective seems lacking in many physicians and the spine surgeries they offer. At the age of 15, Pauza was performing Neurosurgery Research in the Division of Neurosurgery at Penn State College of Medicine because the State asked him to leave junior high school to pursue higher levels of learning, calling him “mentally gifted” because of his high IQ and creative abilities (section 1371 of School Code (24 P. S. § 13-1371.)

Early on, Pauza recognized the flaws of most spine surgeries, observing that spine surgeries didn’t follow the rules of Nature and Physics, and so their underlying premise was flawed. Fusions were illogical because they implanted steel rods and screws, damaging adjacent spine structures. Likewise, discectomies were illogical because they damaged discs by removing their supporting structural walls, accelerating disc degeneration. Fortunately, research from around the World ultimately vindicated Pauza’s beliefs associated with discectomies and fusions. Pauza wanted to improve the “old school” Spine Surgery paradigm, but at age 15, he couldn’t easily challenge old school spine surgery ways.