Today he specializes in orthopedic and post-surgical rehab, including the treatment of patients with neck, shoulder, back, hip and knee pain. He calls back pain an “epidemic,” especially in Kern County, due to obesity and poor medical treatment, including the over-prescribing of opioids and over-utilization of diagnostic imaging and unnecessary surgeries.
Back pain and mismanagement of it not only can cripple sufferers, he argues, but has a huge impact on the U.S. economy when you look at lost productivity and the cost of diagnosis and treatment. “We are talking $50 billion per year spent on treating back pain in the United States.”
His “passion” is finding patients better solutions than pain killers and surgery.
“That’s my drive, that’s my passion: To get people in here, talk to them, ask them how long they’ve been on opioids, ask them, ‘Have you tried to get off? Have you tried physical therapy? What have you tried, what has failed, what has worked?”
He’s also been modernizing Pair & Marotta by implementing electronic medical record keeping to help drive automation, essentially taking the company “from dial-up to 4G.” His long-term plan is to treat patients for a few years, then transition into business development, management and hopefully ownership.
Treating patients
“I love him,” said Angela Mora, 47, who has been coming to Caudillo for care for nearly three years. “He is helpful because he gets to know me.”
Mora still shows signs of expressive aphasia, a condition in which her speech requires much effort to form complete and recognizable sentences.
When Mora first started seeing Caudillo, she couldn’t walk or even speak. She suffered severe, right-sided hemiplegia due to a stroke. He’s worked on her functionality ever since.
Today she’s walking and has near-full use of her right arm again; she’s just working on shoulder mobility and fine motor strength.
“All this is now good,” she said proudly, rotating her arm. She and her mom, Teresa Sanchez, credit Caudillo’s positive nature for helping inspire her progress.
“He’s got that personality where you just want to work with him,” Sanchez said.
His private side