Yacoubian joined dozens of doctors, nurses and administrators from Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in the hospital’s lobby to commemorate the anniversary.
“Within a 48-hour period after the attack, our Blood Donor Center collected 56 gallons of blood,” public relations manager Dan Boyle said. “It’s fitting that [the commemoration] is done here.”
The hospital also honored Burbank resident Dr. Yeneneh Betru, an internist who was killed on Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon that morning.
Betru had spent much of his spare time and money fixing six used dialysis machines to send to his hometown hospital in Ethiopia, hoping to open the country’s first dialysis clinic, Boyle said.
“Dr. Betru wanted to send these machines to Ethiopia to train physicians there on how to use them,” he said. “His grandmother died of renal kidney failure there because no dialysis machines were available in Ethiopia, except to the very rich.”
Hospital staff members carried on with Betru’s efforts.
“Nurses and other employees here have been instrumental in fulfilling Betru’s dream,” Boyle said.
“They raised $7,000 to purchase four new dialysis machines and help open the center.”
Citing government bureaucracy in Ethiopia, Boyle was unsure whether the machines have been delivered and did not know about the status of the clinic.
But Betru’s memory lives on through his former co-workers at the hospital, case manager Bobby Diamond said.
“He was a dedicated, wonderful human being,” Diamond said. “He was truly nice, and if you ask anyone, they will say the same thing.”
