The Spine Center: Two decades of trusted care with Eric Strauch, PA-C

Lucy Buckley first met Eric Strauch, PA-C, when he was working with the well-known spine specialist Dr. Donald Corenman, and her daughter needed back surgery. Ten years later, Lucy developed her own back problem and found herself in an exam room with Eric. He explained to Lucy what she was up against, carefully reviewing the MRI and X-rays of her spinal column. “It went sideways, like a hairpin,” Lucy recalls. The curve had an angle of 37 degrees and involved her entire lumbar spine. “Eric worked one side of my back and Dr. Corenman worked on the other to perform a spinal fusion T10 down through the sacrum,” she explains. Lucy is pain free in her back to this day.
 

“Eric has been there in every successful surgery for my daughter and me,” says Lucy. “He is a trusted and patient-oriented caregiver.”
 

According to her own description, 73-year-old Lucy, who lives in Boulder, has always been very active. In the last few years alone, she has backpacked 256 miles on the John Muir Trail and rafted several rivers in Alaska and the Yukon. She and her husband have enjoyed weeklong backpacking trips below the rim in the Grand Canyon and they’ve summited all of Colorado’s 14ers. “My back is great; it serves me well. Now, after all of this ‘heavy use’, my neck began acting up!” 
 

Through the years, Lucy continues to seek out Eric’s care. “He’s a superstar,” she says. “Even though I live several hours away, I will always travel to see Eric to help assess orthopedic challenges.” 
 

In 2024, Eric began working as physician assistant to Dr. Felipe Ituarte at The Spine Center at Valley View. Because of her trust in Eric’s recommendation, Lucy is now a patient of Dr. Ituarte. After a thorough discussion of all treatment options regarding her neck and arm pain, Lucy subsequently decided to move forward with a three-level anterior cervical fusion at Valley View.
 

“I’ve known Eric for 19 years and he’s always been a trusted advisor,” says Lucy. “He listens well, he’s very thorough and looks at the whole picture. When he’s thinking through a situation, he’ll often think out loud so that, as a lay person, I can follow along – what the physical strength tests and scans reveal, what the options are, how he has gotten to his conclusions. He would never suggest surgery unless necessary. That’s something that I very much appreciate.”