Since he was a young boy, Paul F. Shea, M.D. has been asked the question “Are you going to follow in your father’s footsteps and become a great ear doctor one day?” The obvious answer to the question seemed to be yes. In many ways, he considers it to have been his destiny, but the road was not easy one. There were many challenges he had to overcome, not the least of which was living in the shadow of his larger-than-life father, John J. Shea, Jr., M.D. Indeed, becoming an ear doctor seems to have been in his blood. Paul Shea is, in fact, the fifth Shea male to have become an ear, nose, and throat doctor, beginning with his grandfather, John J. Shea, Sr., M.D., (1889-1952).

Dr. Paul Shea literally grew up in an operating room and around ear surgery. It was helpful that his father had his own specialty hospital devoted the purpose, the Memphis Eye and Ear Hospital and Shea Clinic. Every summer from the age of ten until he finished high school, Paul worked for his father at the hospital. His first job was to make rounds bringing water to the patients after surgery, earning him the handsome sum of five dollars a day. Several years later he would work at Applied Research Corporation, a small company that designed instruments like the specialized drills used for operating in the ear. During these years, Paul had the opportunity to observe his father in surgery hundreds of times, and he learned much about the stapedectomy operation that had made his father and the Shea Clinic world famous. Twice Paul brought his entire class to the Shea Clinic to observe his father in the operating room performing his miraculous operation to restore deafness in patients with otosclerosis. These early experiences formed the foundation for his interest in the ear that would continue for the rest of his life.

Dr. Paul Shea attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee and graduated with a B.A. in English in 1988. Between college and medical school, he worked for Charles Norris, Ph.D., at Tulane University in New Orleans, on a project studying hair cells, the specialized nerve endings in the inner ear. This work would provide the basis for the Intratympanic Perfusion procedure that is now performed at the Shea Clinic for Meniere’s disease and other disorders of the inner ear. Paul graduated from medical school at Tulane University in 1995. He remembers his years in New Orleans, where he has family, as some of his most productive, formative and happiest.

Paul returned to Memphis and completed a six-year residency consisting of two years of general surgery followed by four years of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in 2001. He then completed a fellowship in Neurotology at the Carolina Ear Institute in Raleigh, North Carolina under John T. McElveen, M.D. During his year in Raleigh he was exposed to many complex otologic, neurotologic, and skull-base cases referred to the Carolina Ear and Hearing Clinic from all over the region. Paul earned his board certification in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery in 2002.

Paul joined the staff of the Shea Ear Clinic, in July of 2002. He has privileges at the Methodist and Baptist Hospital systems in Memphis. He has a busy practice in Otology and Neurotology with a special interest in chronic otitis media, stapedectomy, Meniere’s disease, intratympanic perfusion, cochlear implantation, and acoustic neuroma. He is an associate clinical professor at the University of Tennessee Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, where he lectures and supervises residents. He is a member of the Memphis ENT Society, the Tennessee Medical Association, and the American Medical Association.