Long Bao Doan

A Life of Service and Friendship

Long Doan was a cherished member of the St. John Ambulance community in Ontario. Known for his unwavering kindness, generosity, and willingness to lend a helping hand, Long impacted everyone he met with his selfless spirit. A true friend, Long was always there to offer support, bringing light and warmth to those around him.

A Legacy of Kindness

Long’s life was defined by his dedication to helping others, both in his role with St. John Ambulance and as a friend who could be counted on through any challenge. He had a special gift for making people feel valued and supported, a quality that will be deeply missed.

Long’s family and friends remember him with love and gratitude for the unforgettable impact he has had on their lives. This website is a space to share memories, stories, and tributes to his life.

Long's Story

Long Doan was born in south Vietnam in 1976 during which time the Vietnam War had recently concluded and over the course of several years many south Vietnamese would face prosecution in the newly formed Socialist Republic of Vietnam. During this period of time Long’s Mother Chau (My) Tran was forced to raised Long Doan by herself as well as make plans to leave Vietnam to avoid prosecution for being South Vietnamese. Food was difficult to come by and often had to be begged for while many nations across the globe were often unreceptive towards Vietnamese refugees. Long’s father, who will not be named, would also not aid matters as he was absent, negligent and tried to leverage the political situation to embezzle money. Thankfully, Chau Tran was able to find refuge in Canada where Long grew up and attended school.

Unfortunately, poor nutrition and the high stress of being a refugee did cause Long to have many health problems some of which would continue to plague him in later life. Chau Tran would often reminisce that during these troubled times Long was often very ill and his body did not grow properly. This lead to several surgeries that weren’t known at the time to be particularly safe; one surgery for the heart and a second for Long’s skull. The surgery on Long’s skull was visible to the very end of his life. Miraculously, Long was able to survive both of these surgeries.

Being a Vietnamese refugee came with a significant degree of discrimination even in the relatively friendly Canadian environment. Despite this, Long proved gifted academically and was able to attend post-secondary education and later medical school abroad in the United States in the hopes of becoming a medical Doctor. Long would return home to Canada and both volunteer as an Outreach member and work as a First Aid Instructor with St. John Ambulance while continuing to pursue a career in the field of medicine. Due to legally imposed limits on the number of Doctors and the strong financial barriers in place making the path to becoming a licensed Doctor difficult, Long chose to pursue a license in the field of Registered Nursing which he succeeded in doing as of 2021.

Long’s academic pursuits did take a further toll on his health. Preoccupied with his studies and day to day duties, Long was unaware that he had been on a regiment of medications that were damaging his Kidneys as well as being on blood pressure medication that was too strong. By the time Long had noticed his Kidneys had degraded to stage 4 failure. His academic pursuits often left little time for self-care which caused already existing problems with his Cardiac system to develop further.

Despite everything that happened, Long lived his life as selflessly as he could. He took every miracle that extended his life and used it to help others. Long was often ahead of his time when it came to adoption of technology and software and would share his expertise and understanding with his friends and family. Long enjoyed playing video games and as a child, Long would play many games on SEGA GENESIS and would fondly recall the times as he would demonstrate Brand Loyalty towards SEGA in the Nintendo and SEGA video game wars. Later in life, Long would be content with purchasing video games knowing that he would not have time to play them but that others in the family would be able to play them and enjoy them on his behalf.

Long heavily adored the principles of Emulation and would seek out methods to make emulate various aspects of console hardware. Long managed to get several arcade games working on his computer and even managed to create a setup where Wii mote input could be sent to the PC to be used as the same inputs a flashgun would make in the Arcades (in other words, the wii mote was the same as the guns in arcade). Long also managed to make two player flash gun games work flawlessly and even managed to rig a 2 player network multiplayer arcade game by the name of “Spirits of Zeon” to run in a single instance allowing flawless single screen CO-OP play.

Long did have an interest in anime. Long would watch the subtitled version of several long running anime such as One Piece and Naruto. Later in life, Long would also begin watching English Dubbed Anime with his brother Khoi Doan. In terms of anime, Long had wide reaching tastes in anime genres; enjoying comedy, action, mystery, drama, economic, and romance anime. Long would often watch the entirety of a given anime series in a single day as the stories appealed heavily to him.

Long would also enjoy volunteering with St. John Ambulance and interacting with its many members.

Celebration of Life

Long’s Celebration of Life brought together friends, family, and colleagues to remember a man whose spirit and kindness will forever be cherished. His legacy lives on in the lives he touched, the moments he shared, and the love he gave freely to those around him.