Sticky Notes

Yeneneh, a native of Ethiopia, dreamt of coming to the United States to become a doctor.

And so he did.

But on the day of the Ethiopian New Year, Yeneneh perished on American Flight 77 that crashed into  the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. He was returning from Ethiopia, with a stop in Washington, D.C., on the way home to Burbank, CA., and made the fateful decision to travel home one day early. Other family members, who had accompanied him, took separate flights home and arrived safely.

Yeneneh earned his medical degree at the University of Michigan. He lived in Burbank, CA,  and was the Director of Medical Affairs for IPC, a North Hollywood-based company that manages hospital services. "Betru was a pioneer in hospitalist care, a new trend in hospital practice management focusing on patients in acute, sub-acute or long-term care settings, and had personally trained hundreds of physicians across the country in the field."   Medicine at Michigan

But Yeneneh's drive  didn't stop there.

His current mission had been a 3-year-long effort to provide kidney dialysis machines to Ethiopia, where he had discovered not one dialysis center existed anywhere in the country.  Yeneneh was just returning from overseas as part of putting his plan in motion. Yeneneh had already assembled six refurbished machines, with the help of  John Stramoski who refurbishes dialysis equipment for hospitals in the San Fernando Valley.

Yeneneh is survived by his parents, two brothers and a sister. 

Five years later we honor him.

And promise not to forget his life...

his accomplishments...

and the legacy he left behind. 

Beverly L.  at IPC was kind enough to tell me that a family that spearheaded an effort to bring Dr. Betru's dream to fruition has raised sufficient funds to make it happen and are currently working through the final details.  A thank you to them as well.