Neurosurgeon Dr. Keith Kuhlengel of Lancaster Neuroscience & Spine Associates
Growing up on a farm in southern Illinois, Keith Kuhlengel devoted the same perseverance and hard work to tending beef cattle and baling hay as he did to his education. When it came time to choose a career, his desire to help people drew him to medicine. “I wanted a profession that would keep me in a continuing education process, and challenge me for a lifetime,” Dr. Kuhlengel explains.
At first he thought he would become a family doctor, but as he worked toward his medical degree at Washington University Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, he decided on a career in neurosurgery. During the past 14 years he has treated thousands of Central Pennsylvania residents as a specialist in spinal disorders at Lancaster NeuroScience & Spine Associates.
His years on a farm instilled in him an abiding affection for farming and maintaining a connection to the land. He is as much at home on a tractor at his farm in Lebanon County as he is in the Operating Rooms of area hospitals. Wearing those two hats has made for a remarkable fit in this area, and gives him and his patients a rapport that contributes to good communications.
"I have a mix of patients,” Dr. Kuhlengel said, “and I try to show them that all medical problems – hypertension, cholesterol, spinal disorders, disc degeneration—are all related to their weight and level of physical activity. Of course, I try to get the smokers to quit, which is very hard for most people to do,” he continued. “Smoking has also been shown to cause more back pain.”
He practices what he preaches. He works his on the family farm in Londonderry Township, and furthers his connection to farm life through his passion for antique tractors. It began back when he rode his grandfather’s steam traction engines, and today he owns five threshing machines and more than 20 tractors, including his father’s original John Deere, another link to his love of the machinery that he calls a living piece of history.
There is a stunning contrast to the technology he uses as a neurosurgeon and as a collector of old-world threshers and farming equipment. He is highly skilled in both, and he appreciates the dichotomy of performing critical spinal surgery then going home to the fun of keeping his tractors operational.
In addition to being President of Lancaster NeuroScience & Spine Associates, he is president of the Rumely Product Collectors, a national organization for Rumely Oil Pull Tractor enthusiasts. He is also an active member of Rough and Tumble, an historical agricultural society in Kinzers. Dr. Kuhlengel is an announcer each year for their summer pageant, where the harvesting competition draws thousands.
“The participants are an amazing group of people, salt of the earth,” Dr. Kuhlengel explained. “Each summer they demonstrate flailing, cradling, and winnowing grain by hand like they did in ancient Egypt. Then they move to the groundhog thresher, using Belgian horses to power the thresher, then to steam engines, hit and miss engines, model T Ford’s driving the machine, and then to the big gas tractors,” he added.
“It’s like stepping back 80 years. History is being passed down, and I enjoy being a part of it,” Dr. Kuhlengel concluded.
