Loma Linda Nurse Was Part of Overseas Heart Team
Lavaun Ward Sutton, a nurse who was part of the original Loma Linda University heart team working overseas in the 1960s and ’70s, died May 29 at her home in Loma Linda, after a long illness. She was 73.
She was born March 17, 1935, in Glendale and attended La Sierra College (now La Sierra University) in Riverside before earning her bachelor’s degree in nursing from the Loma Linda University School of Nursing in 1957.
She earned a master’s degree in nursing with a focus in cardiac surgery and teaching from the LLU School of Nursing in 1965 and was an associate clinical professor of nursing at LLU.
With a focus on cardiac surgery and intensive care nursing, her career spanned 40 years, with seven years at White Memorial Medical Center in Los Angeles and 32 years at Loma Linda University Medical Center.
As a member of the original LLU heart team from 1963 to 1979, she worked in Pakistan, Taiwan, Thailand, Greece, Vietnam and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The team was recognized by Vice President Lyndon Johnson and President Richard Nixon.
Concurrent with her work, she volunteered for 30 years with the American Heart Association. She served on the American Heart Association board and the nursing education committee, pioneering in the development of early electrocardiography classes and coronary care courses for nurses.
She taught many parents and families cardiopulmonary resuscitation for safe care of their infants and children after their hospital discharge and coordinated pacemaker clinics for 17 years.
Looking back on her career, she said her best reward came from “helping families cope with the crisis of open heart surgery and seeing students rise to the challenges of intensive care.”
Once retired, she maintained her involvement with volunteer activities, including parish nursing through the Loma Linda University Church of Seventh-day Adventists on the Loma Linda campus.
She co-founded the Loma Linda chapter of Mended Hearts Inc., a national support group for people who have been through cardiac surgery.
In 2003, she received the Woman of the Year Award representing the 63d District of the California Legislature, “In recognition of outstanding service and dedication to the people of the State of California.”
Survivors include her daughters Cheryl Sutton and Loree Sutton; her brother Ellsworth Ward and his wife, Barbara; and many nieces and nephews, friends, colleagues, patients and students.
Visitation is 4 to 8 p.m. Saturday, June 7, at Montecito Memorial Chapel, at Barton Road and Waterman Avenue in Loma Linda. A memorial service in celebration of her life will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday, June 8, at the Loma Linda University Church of Seventh-day Adventists, 11125 Campus St., Loma Linda.
Memorial donations, to honor her lifelong love of cardiac patients and their families, may be made to Big Hearts for Little Hearts (Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital) or to Mended Hearts Inc., Chapter 34 (Loma Linda University Medical Center).
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