Thanks to a gift of surgery through the nonprofit SPIRIT and investments by Sutter Health, Angelica, right, had a cyst removed from her neck by Dr. Timothy Fife.
By Melissa Fuson, Vitals contributor
(Editor’s note: Out of respect for these patients’ wishes, their last names have been withheld.)
Angelica had lived with a swollen cyst on her neck her entire life; in fact, she’d had it since the day she was born, nearly 50 years ago in rural Mexico. Her mother told her the wound was caused by her midwife, who accidentally pricked newborn Angelica’s neck with a safety pin while securing a blanket around her.
For decades, Angelica just accepted the painful, fluid-filled lump as part of her story. And since she didn’t have health insurance, she never thought about seeing a doctor about it. After all, she’d lived with it her entire life.
Angelica was finally able to see a specialist at a free community clinic in Davis, where she was referred to the Sacramento Physicians’ Initiative to Reach out, Innovate and Teach, or SPIRIT. SPIRIT is a nonprofit organization that has paired Valley-area healthcare providers with low-income, uninsured patients in need of surgical and specialty care for 30 years.
SPIRIT connected Angelica with Dr. Timothy Fife, an ear, nose and throat specialist with Sutter Independent Physicians. Dr. Fife explained that the wound on her neck was a branchial cleft fistula. Branchial cleft abnormalities are congenital deformities that occur during early fetal development when the branchial clefts fail to completely fuse.
Patients with these abnormalities can have large cysts or tracts that can extend from their throat to the skin of their neck. Though these defects are benign, they can get infected and cause other problems. The only treatment is surgical.
Dr. Fife performed surgery to remove the cyst at Sutter Sierra Surgery Center in Roseville in early 2025. Angelica says the surgery has improved her quality of life — and helped rewrite the story of the day she was born.
“I’m very grateful for Dr. Fife,” Angelica says. “He’s an amazing doctor and an incredible human being. I’m still in disbelief that I was able to receive this surgery. I wish more people knew about SPIRIT. I never imagined there was such a beautiful program in our area.”
Dr. Fife agrees. “It’s a relatively small sacrifice to participate in the SPIRIT program, but seeing how that participation blesses the lives of patients like Angelica is both humbling and rewarding,” he says. “Interactions like these remind me why I decided to become a surgeon in the first place. I’m privileged to be a part of SPIRIT.”
Partnering with SPIRIT and other community-based organizations is one way Sutter Health seeks to put its mission into action. Last year, Sutter invested $36,500 to help expand access to surgical and specialty care for uninsured patients and provided more than $125,000 of in-kind surgeries in the Sacramento area alone.
“This investment reflects our deep commitment to removing barriers to care and ensuring that everyone — regardless of insurance status — has access to the services they need to live healthier lives,” says Angelika Corchado, Community Health director for Sutter’s Greater Sacramento Division. “Giving back is what we do.”
Giving back can mean relieving someone’s years-long pain.
Ivette had been suffering from ear pain for more than four years. The pain had become so severe that it caused her to experience nausea and dizziness and prevented her from driving. She sought help from community clinics but struggled to find relief.
Finally, Ivette visited a student-run clinic that referred her to SPIRIT and ear, nose and throat specialist Dr. Varun Varadarajan, also with Sutter Independent Physicians. Dr. Varadarajan diagnosed her with tympanic membrane perforation — commonly known as a ruptured eardrum — and performed surgery to repair it at Fort Sutter Surgery Center.
Since the surgery Ivette has returned to work and says she’s resumed control of her life.
“I’m so grateful to everyone that made my surgery possible,” she says. “It’s important for patients like me that don’t have the financial resources to have programs and doctors that donate to these services.”
