{"id":304919,"date":"2026-06-12T07:55:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T07:55:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/304919\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T07:55:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T07:55:27","slug":"oneblood-team-honors-colleague-who-died-in-pulse-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/304919\/","title":{"rendered":"OneBlood team honors colleague who died in Pulse shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 In the days that followed the Pulse nightclub shooting, many rushed to donate life-saving blood.<\/p>\n

Yet, a team that processed that blood never imagined the tragedy would hit so close to home.<\/p>\n

Rodolfo Ayala Ayala, who worked as a platelets supervisor at OneBlood and whose co-workers affectionately called Rody, died in the June 12, 2016 shooting.<\/p>\n

\u201cRody was a diamond in the sky. He was joyful, he was courageous,”\u00a0said Tameka Brownlee, a OneBlood Biologics manufacturing platelets supervisor. “You know, he was an encouraging person, a loving person,\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Tameka<\/p>\n

Tameka Brownlee said that her coworker Rodolfo Ayala Ayala, whom she called Rody, befriended her right away, helping her look for a new apartment when she relocated to Orlando. (Spectrum News)<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the moment he started, he was just a burst of energy,\u201d said another friend, Kadian McIntosh-Rosales, a manager with the blood center\u2019s biologics manufacturing. \u201cHe brought so much light to the team every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for many hours prior to learning the news of his death, Rody’s OneBlood teammates desperately tried to reach him by phone.<\/p>\n

As Central Florida answered the call for blood, Rody did not.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember hearing we hadn\u2019t heard from Rody, there was a concern,” recalled Susan Forbes, OneBlood senior vice president of corporate communications and public relations.<\/p>\n

As they continued trying to contact Roday, Forbes said the team worked feverishly to process blood to send to hospitals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe kept calling his phone,” McIntosh-Rosales said. “All day. Text messages, everything. And just trying to see if anyone has heard anything.”<\/p>\n

\"OneBlood<\/p>\n

OneBlood Biologics Manufacturing Manager Kadian McIntosh-Rosales oversees the blood center\u2019s Orlando location, handling day-to-day operations of blood component processing. (Spectrum News)<\/p>\n

And once the team learned that Rody was one of the victims, Brownlee said that she was overcome by grief and shock.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe both were working 48 hours before that took place. We were working together and talking, having fun \u2026 I hugged him. I said, \u2018OK, I\u2019ll see you when we get back,\u2019\u201d she said, wiping away tears. “And then not knowing I was not going to see him again. So that really was heartbreaking for me. He was more than a supervisor \u2014 he was my friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

For weeks, the blood center team wiped away tears, shared hugs and memories of their joyous, dance-loving friend, who they considered family.<\/p>\n

So, as families do, they honored Rody in the best way they knew how: They installed a plaque in OneBlood\u2019s lobby that includes a photo that captures his spirit.<\/p>\n

\"Plaque<\/p>\n

Plaque placed in OneBlood’s lobby honoring Rodolfo Ayala Ayala (Courtesy: OneBlood)<\/p>\n

\u201cI pass by it all the time and look at him and just smile and be like, ‘You know Rody, I know you\u2019re shining down on us,\u2019\u201d Brownlee said.<\/p>\n

Forbes said the plaque also reminds the team of the fragility of life, and the importance of the work they do.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the donor who came in two and three days before the Pulse tragedy, that their blood was available at that moment when those patients were being brought in,\u201d Forbes said. \u201cThe people who survived that tragedy depended on blood donors to save their life.\u201d<\/p>\n

And now, 10 years after the attack, Rody’s co-workers keep his memory close.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would tell him that we miss him tremendously, let him know about the positive impact he\u2019s had on my life as a leader,\u201d said McIntosh-Rosales. \u201cI want to tell him that he just left such an impact on us and we will forever remember him.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\nREMEMBERING PULSE<\/p>\n

Ten years ago minus one day, the city of Orlando was dealing with a tragedy. Late Friday night, June 10th, 2016, singer Christina Grimmie was shot and killed after a concert at The Plaza Live at Colonial Plaza, just east of downtown Orlando. The Saturday morning news was overflowing about the horrific murder of a young celebrity in The City Beautiful\u2019s own backyard. It was incomprehensible that someone would do such a thing, and then the incomprehensible was followed by the unimaginable. Some 27 and a half hours after Grimmie\u2019s murder, another gunman opened fire at the Pulse Nightclub on South Orange Avenue in the SODO section of Orlando, killing 49 people and injuring 58 others. When daylight came, the numbers were staggering.<\/p>\n

Stories:<\/p>\n

More Pulse Coverage \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 In the days that followed the Pulse nightclub shooting, many rushed to donate life-saving blood.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[274,28,15465,115,1335,139,141,140,16956,135,278,835],"class_list":["post-304919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-top-stories","tag-florida","tag-julie-gargotta","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-pulse-shooting","tag-tampa","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}