A Life of Service, in Uniform and Scrubs

Cleveland Clinic nurse Loni Adams, MSN, MBA, APRN-CNS, carries something special in her lab coat pocket: stars cut from retired American flags.

On her work break, she makes time to present them to hospitalized military veterans. Each star is paired with a challenge coin, a traditional symbol of camaraderie, recognition and honor.

“Veterans light up when they realize they’re getting a special visit and recognition from someone who understands,” says Adams, who is also a veteran. “It’s my way of saying, ‘You are not forgotten.’”

This desire for connection goes beyond patients. The longtime caregiver recently handed a star to a colleague in Information Technology who came to fix her computer.

Adams credits Rabbi Susan Stone, Director of Spiritual Care at Hillcrest Hospital, for inspiring her to make a difference. Now, Adams is working to standardize the touching gesture across the enterprise.

Transforming transplant care across continents

As a nurse who specializes in managing heart and lung transplant patients, Adams leads education and innovation across multiple Cleveland Clinic locations, including Abu Dhabi. Among her responsibilities are teaching comprehensive transplant classes, developing monthly newsletters and mentoring fellow nurses who are pursuing certification.

“I focus on improving transplant and cardiac surgery outcomes through three spheres of influence: direct patient care, nursing practice and organizational practices,” she explains.

Her latest project — a collaboration between Cleveland Clinic's nursing education program and the Simulation and Advanced Skills Center — is a virtual reality initiative that trains clinicians to perform an emergency sternotomy, a critical, lifesaving procedure. Adams says the simulated exercises teach participants how to restore blood flow by rapidly opening the chest and relieving pressure around the heart.

“The program enables caregivers across time zones to train together in real time,” she explains. “It’s exciting to see how far we’ve come to standardize care and bring teams together.”

Honoring organ donors

Adams says one of the most meaningful parts of her work is organizing Honor Walks for military veterans who are donating their organs. During these quiet, powerful tributes, the hospital team drapes the patient in the American flag and ceremoniously escorts them to the operating room for organ procurement. The flag is then folded and presented to the patient's family.

“It’s a moment of reverence,” Adams says. “Families see their loved one’s legacy in motion. It’s quite moving.”

Adams’s passion for transplant care is deeply personal. In high school, she was found to have a rare bone cyst and required a tissue transplant to walk again.

“That experience has shaped my entire medical career,” she says.

Answering the call after 9/11

Adams says she first felt a call to serve her country as a teenager.

“I was still in high school when I watched the Twin Towers fall on 9/11, and I instantly knew my nation needed me,” she says.

Adams soon enlisted in the U.S. Navy as an aviation electronics technician, specializing in avionics repair.

“I’m 4'11", and there weren’t many women in technical roles," she explains. "Many thought I wasn’t strong or smart enough, but I proved them wrong."

Adams became her ship’s first female command fitness leader, led a damage-control team and went on to earn multiple honors, including Sailor of the Year. Her military career included 11 deployments and extensive travel in 12 different countries.

“It was hard — but the experience made me who I am,” she adds.

Her greatest role

In her spare time, Adams — a purple belt in Taekwondo — competes nationally with her husband and daughter.

In addition to their shared love of martial arts, the family bakes, builds solar-powered robots and spends weekends immersed in science, technology, engineering and mathematics projects.

Of all her roles, Adams says being a mom is the one she cherishes most.

“My husband and I lost our first child late in pregnancy,” she shares. “Being pregnant again was difficult because I was constantly worried history would repeat itself. Seeing my daughter born healthy was the best moment of my life.”

Every day, they share a tender tradition: "I tell her, ‘I love you most,’ and she always replies, ‘I loved you first.’"