Dr. Gabor Bela Racz

6/21/25

Dr. Gabor Bela Racz, a Hungarian-born anesthesiologist who secretly escaped his war-torn country as a medical student in the 1950s and went on to pioneer advances in pain treatment, died on Saturday. He was approaching 88.

Dr. Racz passed peacefully in his sleep from natural causes at his Dallas home. He was surrounded by family.

“Our father was an extraordinary man – brilliant, compassionate and unwavering in his commitment to pain management,’’ the Racz family said in a statement Monday.

“He dedicated his life to this mission, constantly developing new techniques and advancing research to change the lives of those suffering with chronic debilitating pain.

“Beyond his groundbreaking contributions to medicine, he was a man of deep integrity and devotion to faith and family. He lived every day with optimism and purpose.’’

Dr. Racz was chairman emeritus of the anesthesiology department at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, and professor emeritus at the school’s health sciences center. He helped found the World Institute of Pain, a nonprofit medical society that brings experts together to stop needless suffering.

Over five decades, thousands of people around the world with chronic pain ranging from spinal diseases to complex nerve syndromes sought care from Dr. Racz. His specialty was pain intervention management, a field focused on using the least invasive procedures. Patients left his care with significantly diminished or vanished pain, regaining the ability to walk, work and otherwise lead happy lives. The success of Dr. Racz’s treatments stemmed from his efforts to fully understand his patients’ problems, as well as his knack for innovation, his colleagues said.

Dr. Racz, for example, developed epidural adhesiolysis, also known as the “Racz procedure,’’ to treat ailments such as chronic spinal pain, often caused by failed surgery. The technique uses a catheter to break up scar tissue that aggravates nerve roots so anesthetics can be injected to reduce inflammation. To enhance the procedure, he invented the Racz Catheter, a smaller, more flexible spring-loaded tube that also acts as an imaging probe.

His work with nerve stimulators, heat-generated radio waves and a host of other procedures also have been widely applied by physicians in the U.S. and other countries.

“Dr. Racz made his mark as one of the greatest interventional pain physicians in history,’’ said Dr. Alan David Kaye, professor and chairman of the anesthesiology department at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans.

Dr. Kaye, who studied pain intervention under Racz at Texas Tech and later succeeded him as chairman of anesthesiology, said Racz’s gifts as both a healer and medical innovator were profoundly informed by obstacles he overcame early in life.

Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1937, Gabor Racz frequently battled childhood illnesses. He grew up envisioning himself as a doctor, in part because he was inspired by the kindness of his own physician when he made house calls to his bedside. His mother also was told by a fortune teller that this was his destiny.

Despite his family’s meager income – mainly due to their resistance to cooperate with the then-Communist government – he worked his way through almost two years of education at the Semmelweis University Medical School. During his second year, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 erupted and he volunteered to help the resistance after seeing hundreds of people killed or injured. Soon, his mother warned him that the

government’s secret police had been searching for him.

He knew he could face prison or torture, a common outcome for citizens even suspected of defying the regime. So he fled Hungary with his beloved future wife Enid and little more than their clothes. With the help of guides, they crawled for hours through mud, dodging minefields and making it across the heavily patrolled border to a refugee camp in Austria.

The couple ultimately made it to England, aided by the Red Cross and other organizations. He won a scholarship to finish medical school in Liverpool, graduating in 1962 with a bachelor of medicine and bachelor of surgery. In 1963, he landed an anesthesiology residency in the U.S. at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, NY.

In those early turbulent years, Dr. Racz said he was inspired by Enid’s love and support. As long as he had that, wherever they were, he always had a home, he said. “Enid was home,’’ he wrote in a memoir the family aims to publish in coming months.

After his residency, Dr. Racz worked in several positions at SUNY and as a consultant for the Veterans Administration Hospital and the UHS Chenango Memorial Hospital in Norwich, NY. Along the way, he challenged long held practices and investigated lax patient care to find solutions.

For Dr. Racz, the practice of anesthesiology “became more than just using a dial or agents to get the desired body reactions during surgery,’’ he wrote. “I realized that I could change the course of what seemed to be hopeless cases.”

He cultivated a strong belief that doctors should listen closely to their patients and not write off their pain as inevitable, a common dynamic he witnessed over his career. Such disregard can doom a patient to live with unnecessary distress or an early death, he wrote.

In 1977, Texas Tech recognized his talent for leadership and hired him to develop and chair its proposed anesthesiology department. He headed the division until 1999. By 2006, he had not only treated thousands of patients, but served as a director of pain services at the health sciences center, and co-founded the World Institute of Pain, which provides hands-on training and educational resources to pain specialists. He also brought

the institute’s annual convention to Budapest to help give back to his native country.

Dr. Racz was the first recipient of the Grover E. Murray Professorship, the highest honor bestowed by the Texas Tech University Health Center. The center also awarded Dr. Racz a $1 million endowed chair.

His raft of awards and distinctions was many, includes serving as president of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians, and including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians, along with several other lifetime achievement awards from prestigious medical organizations. Throughout his life, Gabor treated tens of thousands of patients and traveled the world to share his groundbreaking techniques for treating chronic pain, training physicians across continents and transforming the field on a global scale.

His friends, colleagues and family said Dr. Racz will long be remembered for his deep compassion, mentoring and devotion to family, along with personal mantras such as “Don’t ever give up!” and “Life is good!”

“Dr. Racz would never turn his back on a person in pain, and neither should we,’’ said Dr. Miles Day, president of the World Institute of Pain in a press statement. “In his memory and in his honor, we must continue to uphold the highest standards of medical care and human compassion.’’

Dr. Racz’s family said his life offered a stellar example of being human. “He instilled in us the unshakable value that family comes first. His legacy is one of healing, innovation and unconditional love. We are blessed to be his family. In his famous words: ‘It could be better, but I don’t know how.’ ’’

Dr. Racz is survived by wife Enid; his children, Gabor J. Racz and wife Floramay; Tibor Racz and wife Amelia; Yvonne Racz, Sandor Racz and wife Kristy; and 14 grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, the Racz family requests that donations be made to the Finger Lakes Land Trust, 202 E. Court St., Ithaca, NY 14850(https://www.fllt.org/give). Details of memorial

services will be released in the coming days.

A rosary for Dr. Racz, for close friends and family, will be held Saturday, June 28, 2025 from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM at Grove Hill Funeral Home, 3920 Samuell Blvd, Dallas, TX 75228, followed by a reception from 3:00 PM to 5:30 PM.

To send condolences, visit: robertdgrayfuneralhome.com.