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Karen Love (August 9, 2012) |
Willie Nelson sings of “Angels Flying Too Close To The Ground,” and here in our Valley one such angel touched down years ago and has continued to impact the lives of countless. Billboards last year reminded us that the El Centro Regional Medical Center offers a state-of-the-art Wound Center, and the billboard face we all came to know was that of Karen Love, the Wound Center’s Clinical Nurse Manager and one of the Imperial Valley’s special angels on earth.
Love’s a Valley girl born and raised. Her mother, transplanted from Massachusetts, and her father from New Mexico fell in love here in Imperial Valley, married and had two children — a son Eddie Jones and daughter Karen.
Love grew up in Imperial, graduated from Imperial High and then left the Valley for a period of time. Returning home in 1993 to provide care giving to her ailing mother, Love was inspired to become a nurse, and in 1996 she began the educational process starting at IVC. She eventually received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees through the University of Phoenix, and in 1999 her nursing career with El Centro Regional Medical Center was established. Her compassion was instantly felt by all those she encountered, and in time Love rose to the position of Clinical Coordinator managing the hospital floor nurses. It was there her vision for the community’s need of an expanded wound care program for suffering patients was realized. Love took the opportunity to attend a Wound, Ostomy and Continence Program (WOC) at the highly respected MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas in Houston and not only brought home a greater understanding for the need in standardized wound care treatment and advanced wound care treatment modalities. Knowledge in the vastly growing success of hyperbaric oxygen chamber therapy (HBO) was obtained at the University of Ohio during a week-long training session prior to opening the wound center. “This is the same type of therapy the Navy uses for their divers in treating decompression illness,” Love explains.
Read more about Karen Love in the July/August 2012 edition of Valley Women Magazine in print or our online E-Edition.
Love’s a Valley girl born and raised. Her mother, transplanted from Massachusetts, and her father from New Mexico fell in love here in Imperial Valley, married and had two children — a son Eddie Jones and daughter Karen.
Love grew up in Imperial, graduated from Imperial High and then left the Valley for a period of time. Returning home in 1993 to provide care giving to her ailing mother, Love was inspired to become a nurse, and in 1996 she began the educational process starting at IVC. She eventually received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees through the University of Phoenix, and in 1999 her nursing career with El Centro Regional Medical Center was established. Her compassion was instantly felt by all those she encountered, and in time Love rose to the position of Clinical Coordinator managing the hospital floor nurses. It was there her vision for the community’s need of an expanded wound care program for suffering patients was realized. Love took the opportunity to attend a Wound, Ostomy and Continence Program (WOC) at the highly respected MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas in Houston and not only brought home a greater understanding for the need in standardized wound care treatment and advanced wound care treatment modalities. Knowledge in the vastly growing success of hyperbaric oxygen chamber therapy (HBO) was obtained at the University of Ohio during a week-long training session prior to opening the wound center. “This is the same type of therapy the Navy uses for their divers in treating decompression illness,” Love explains.
Read more about Karen Love in the July/August 2012 edition of Valley Women Magazine in print or our online E-Edition.
