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Jan 30, 2012

Thank you for saving my life

donovan s-donors-630
Last Friday, 17-year-old heart-transplant recipient Donovan Ho thanked the 11 blood and platelet donors whose 72 donations at UCLA helped keep him alive when his heart failed in 2010. Ho and the donors all waived confidentiality in order to meet each other, something most donors and recipients never get to do. The UCLA Blood and Platelet Center organized the reunion, which included five Bruins donors, identified by their "halos" in the photo above. Click the photo for a larger version.
 
Left: Danny Varzi (Westwood), 19, is a UCLA physics major who donates both blood and platelets because he likes the idea of helping people.
 
Center: Recipient Donovan Ho
 
Next to Ho, on the right: Dr. Josephine Isabel-Jones (Los Angeles), 71, has donated platelets 11 times since 1997. She is a pediatric cardiologist who treats patients at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica.
 
Behind Isabel-Jones: John Manion (Westwood), 22, is a UCLA economics student who plans to enter the U.S. Army after graduation. When his roommate encouraged him to give blood with him, he learned how many “blessings” one donation could provide. Not only could he help a sick person who needed his blood, but he could use the free movie tickets he received to take his girlfriend on a date. 
 
Right of Manion: Daniel Goodman (Culver City), 26, began making directed platelet-donations for a relative in 2007. The UCLA graduate engineering student has donated 65 times since and organizes quarterly blood drives for the campus’ graduate engineering students association
 
Behind Manion and Goodman: Kevin Ellis (El Segundo), 20, began donating as a teenager when the UCLA Blood & Platelet Center hosted a blood drive at his high school. The UCLA civil engineering student continues to make donation a habit, he says, because it’s “a simple and painless way to make a difference in someone’s life.” 
 
Complete list of donors:
Front row, from left: Bonnie Rejaei, recipient Donovan Ho, Dr. Josephine Isabel-Jones, Patrick Denny.
Second row: Danny Varzi, Dan Le, John Manion, Daniel Goodman.
Back row: Tony Kostas, Sean Holland, Ross Carmichael, Kevin Ellis.