Early in his career, Rodney Quindoy thrived on being a critical care nurse who helped patients recover from medical emergencies. Little could prepare him, though, for his own daughter’s terminal cancer diagnosis shortly after he joined MD Anderson’s Patient Safety department in 2014.

“She had such a radiant smile and charisma,” he says of Mikayla, who was diagnosed on New Year’s Eve with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG)....