It was a beautiful fall day in Colorado in 2004 when Kerry O’Connell, while painting his house, tumbled from an unsteady ladder and fractured his left elbow. He expected to have pain, surgery and a recovery period, but he did not expect to get a hospital-acquired infection. Instead, as O’Connell describes, he became part of the “nameless, faceless numerator” — those who get infected — over the denominator of those at risk for a hospital-acquired infection. His life since has not been the same.