You want to believe that someone who works in the health care industry has extra caring in his or her soul for their fellow man, that they’re at least partially driven by service to mankind, not solely by the pleasures and power made possible by the dollar.
The phone calls keep coming. Frequently the callers are angry. Often they’re crying.
When nurse Abby Hudema talks about why the University Medical Center pediatric intensive care unit staff follows infection control policies so closely — it was one of only five such units nationwide to earn the Consumer Reports’ top rating for preventing bloodstream infections in 2012 — she recalls a scene that at first blush doesn’t seem to have much to do with preventing bacteria from entering the bloodstream.
Marina Alvarez holds her 14-month-old son Esteban and kisses the chunky toddler on the cheek as she talks with her neighbor Thomas Locke in the front yard of her northeast Las Vegas home.
