Your bone marrow could help save patient
Yesterday marked the kickoff of a huge month-long bone marrow drive for UCLA Ronald Reagan Hospital patient Bob Corrales.
Corrales, who was featured in the Daily Bruin on Tuesday, is a leukemia patient who has suffered from acute lymphoma for a year this December.
On top of his 10-month battle with the illness, Corrales has been awaiting a bone marrow transplant for the past three months. Though his doctors say a transplant is Corrales’ best hope for survival, it is not the procedure itself that has caused an issue but the search for a proper donor. Because of Corrales’ half-Mexican and half-Chinese background the search has been extremely difficult.
For this reason, the UCLA Blood and Platelet Center decided to sponsor the ambitious event.
All five nights of the drive will take place on the Hill, but all members of the UCLA community are urged to attend and find out if they are, in fact, the match former longtime police officer Corrales has been waiting for.
The testing is not complicated or painful; those who want to see if they’re a match only need to be swabbed inside their mouth.
A small swab to save someone’s life? Doing good is rarely so simple.
Office helps veterans transition to classroom
The effects of war leave lasting marks on the soul of the nation, but rarely do we, as a society, address the repercussions of war and how they affect the psyche of the individual soldier.
For this reason, the editorial board applauds the opening of the new Veterans’ Resource Office.
The difficulties of transitioning into civilian society are vast.
Veterans have seen and experienced atrocities that we as civilians cannot even begin to imagine.
For veterans who pursue higher education, figuring out the education system, the finances, and social life can be daunting.
Having the resource of counselors at UCLA can make the transition that much easier when it comes to navigating these complicated issues. Going from combat to crowded classrooms requires assistance.
Coming back to a world that could not even begin to fathom the war experience leaves a sense of isolation and can have a lasting effect on the mind.
Mental health has only recently been validated as an important topic of discussion for our society at large. Now, the center offers a place where veterans can learn about the resources that we have on campus to address their mental health.
The fact that we acknowledge that the transition for veterans can be difficult and offer resources that were previously unavailable and unaddressed is a strong step in the right direction.
Unsigned editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily Bruin Editorial Board.