Adventist Health Sonora welcomes surgeon Carlos Alvarez, MD, FACS

Adventist Health Sonora is pleased to announce the addition of board-certified general surgeon Carlos Alvarez, MD, FACS, to both its Mountain Medical General Surgery and Rural Health Specialty Care locations. Alvarez performs numerous surgical procedures, including abdominal, endocrine and breast. He frequently treats patients with hernia, gallbladder and thyroid conditions, plus those with colon cancer and breast cancer.

Alvarez is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS) and speaks both English and Spanish. He completed his general surgery residency at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). After his residency, Alvarez pursued extensive postgraduate training in advanced laparoscopic procedures such as colon resection, appendectomy, cholecystectomy and colectomy. He earned his medical degree at the University of South Florida in Tampa and bachelor’s degree from the University of Miami. 

Although he was raised in Miami, Alvarez was born in Cuba and introduced to medicine by his father, the only physician in a small town. When he was a teenager, his mother died unexpectedly during an operation to remove a tumor in her stomach, and he began to consider medicine as a career. “I wanted to help people so they would not suffer the same results [as my mother],” he says.

“Eventually in medical school, I was exposed to surgery and a brilliant surgeon who could do just about any operation and do it better than most,” Alvarez says. “At the same time, he was the kind of thoughtful, caring person who was 180 degrees from the stereotypical surgeon of that era. I knew right away that’s what I wanted to be.”

Alvarez and his wife have been married for nearly 30 years and have two college-age daughters. When not caring for patients, he enjoys soccer, cycling and hiking.

Alvarez is accepting new patients and may be reached at either Mountain Medical General Surgery, located at 680 Guzzi Ln., Ste. 101, in Sonora at (209) 536-5755; or at the Rural Health Specialty Care Clinic, located at 193 S. Fairview Ln., Ste. C, in Sonora at (209) 536-5135.