Nurses have been compared to firefighters; they rush into the conflagration. A talk with former Surf City resident and grandmother Lydia Oliver explains why a registered nurse originally from southwestern Oklahoma would sign up for a temporary critical care post in the intensive care unit of a hard-hit New York City hospital. Oliver was assigned to the Harlem Hospital Center in early April, tending daily to patients in the most precarious balance of life and death.

After 21 days last week, there was no question she would renew the post for another eight weeks.