Mary Rose Burns passed away peacefully with friends and family on December 9th, just two days short of her 96th birthday. Her life's work, and her legacy, is the advancement of pulmonary rehabilitation, a therapy that she helped to establish as one of the most effective treatments to improve the lives of patients afflicted with a range of chronic lung diseases.
Mary Burns was born Mary Rose Roth on December 11th, 1929 at the beginning of the Great Depression. Her parents Anna (Kainz) and Edmund Roth had met on the ship emigrating from Germany just a year before. They settled in New Britain, Connecticut where Mary Roth grew up and lived before she went to nursing school at Hartford Hospital. She became a Registered Nurse in the class of 1950 and later earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Chapman College (1987). Upon graduation, she moved to California with some nursing school friends and within a year had met and married Gene Burns. They settled in Hermosa Beach California, where Linda Mary's only daughter was born (1959) Following her divorce from Gene she resumed her nursing career at San Pedro Peninsula Hospital, (1971). After a couple of years she moved to Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance where she would begin her life's work in pulmonary rehabilitation.
Starting as a critical care nurse at Little Company of Mary Hospital, she soon recognized that pulmonary patients could benefit from the same kind of post-hospitalization exercise therapy that cardiac patients received. This, at a time when clinical practice recommended that pulmonary patients avoid physical exertion. Despite protestations from her supervisors, Mary helped establish the area's first pulmonary rehabilitation program, which soon started achieving remarkable benefits for patients suffering from incurable chronic lung disease. Mary introduced several innovations that were widely copied. She established a post-rehabilitation support group, the PEP Pioneers, that met regularly and invented an annual well-attended "Respiratory Rallye". For many years she published the "Second Wind" newsletter, which was both entertaining and informative, and eventually reached a nationwide audience of people with pulmonary disease and caregivers. She was marvelously innovative; after overcoming daunting difficulties, she organized the first ocean cruise for pulmonary patients requiring supplemental oxygen therapy. She organized delivery of life-saving oxygen supplies to pulmonary patients who survived of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan. She traveled widely, promoting pulmonary rehabilitation around the world. Mary established the non-profit Pulmonary Education and Research Foundation (PERF) that, for almost 40 years, promoted pulmonary rehabilitation in a multitude of ways.
Mary Burns also contributed substantially to the science of pulmonary rehabilitation. Early on, she worked to demonstrate the benefits of pursed lips breathing for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; a breathing technique that allowed patients to increase blood oxygenation and reduce symptoms during activity. Collaborating with a research group at what was is now called the Lundquist Institute, on the campus of the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, she involved her patients in well-designed research studies that established the physiologic basis for pulmonary rehabilitation, advancing the field substantially. As an indication of the high regard in which her career of accomplishments are held, for the past 20 years the California Society for Pulmonary Rehabilitation annually awards the "Mary Burns Award" as its highest honor.
Mary is survived by her daughter, Linda Burns and son in law David Nelson. A private memorial well be held at the Lundquist Institute. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be made to the Respiratory Research Center at the Lindquist Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (https://lundquist.org/donate/?designation=respiratory_research_center).
Mary Burns was born Mary Rose Roth on December 11th, 1929 at the beginning of the Great Depression. Her parents Anna (Kainz) and Edmund Roth had met on the ship emigrating from Germany just a year before. They settled in New Britain, Connecticut where Mary Roth grew up and lived before she went to nursing school at Hartford Hospital. She became a Registered Nurse in the class of 1950 and later earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Chapman College (1987). Upon graduation, she moved to California with some nursing school friends and within a year had met and married Gene Burns. They settled in Hermosa Beach California, where Linda Mary's only daughter was born (1959) Following her divorce from Gene she resumed her nursing career at San Pedro Peninsula Hospital, (1971). After a couple of years she moved to Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance where she would begin her life's work in pulmonary rehabilitation.
Starting as a critical care nurse at Little Company of Mary Hospital, she soon recognized that pulmonary patients could benefit from the same kind of post-hospitalization exercise therapy that cardiac patients received. This, at a time when clinical practice recommended that pulmonary patients avoid physical exertion. Despite protestations from her supervisors, Mary helped establish the area's first pulmonary rehabilitation program, which soon started achieving remarkable benefits for patients suffering from incurable chronic lung disease. Mary introduced several innovations that were widely copied. She established a post-rehabilitation support group, the PEP Pioneers, that met regularly and invented an annual well-attended "Respiratory Rallye". For many years she published the "Second Wind" newsletter, which was both entertaining and informative, and eventually reached a nationwide audience of people with pulmonary disease and caregivers. She was marvelously innovative; after overcoming daunting difficulties, she organized the first ocean cruise for pulmonary patients requiring supplemental oxygen therapy. She organized delivery of life-saving oxygen supplies to pulmonary patients who survived of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan. She traveled widely, promoting pulmonary rehabilitation around the world. Mary established the non-profit Pulmonary Education and Research Foundation (PERF) that, for almost 40 years, promoted pulmonary rehabilitation in a multitude of ways.
Mary Burns also contributed substantially to the science of pulmonary rehabilitation. Early on, she worked to demonstrate the benefits of pursed lips breathing for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; a breathing technique that allowed patients to increase blood oxygenation and reduce symptoms during activity. Collaborating with a research group at what was is now called the Lundquist Institute, on the campus of the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, she involved her patients in well-designed research studies that established the physiologic basis for pulmonary rehabilitation, advancing the field substantially. As an indication of the high regard in which her career of accomplishments are held, for the past 20 years the California Society for Pulmonary Rehabilitation annually awards the "Mary Burns Award" as its highest honor.
Mary is survived by her daughter, Linda Burns and son in law David Nelson. A private memorial well be held at the Lundquist Institute. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be made to the Respiratory Research Center at the Lindquist Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (https://lundquist.org/donate/?designation=respiratory_research_center).
To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Mary Rose Burns, please visit our flower store.
Mary Rose Burns's Guestbook
Visits: 228
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the
Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Service map data © OpenStreetMap contributors