Neonatologist Nachammai Chinnakaruppan, MD, Receives 2024 Project NICU Heart Award

“Dr. Chinnakaruppan saved our daughter’s life,” says Rachael Yuschak, whose daughter Madison spent the first 21 days of her life in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Lehigh Valley Reilly Children’s Hospital.

Yuschak is not alone when it comes to parents who are overwhelmingly grateful for neonatologist Nachammai Chinnakaruppan, MD, and the lifesaving care she has provided to babies who found themselves in the NICU at Lehigh Valley Reilly Children’s Hospital. Therefore, it is no surprise that Dr. Chinnakaruppan has been named a recipient of the 2024 Project NICU Heart Award.

The Project NICU Heart Award is awarded to NICU medical team professionals who have gone above and beyond for their hospital, patients and NICU community. This award offers families like the Yuschaks the opportunity to recognize special NICU medical professionals who have impacted their lives.

For the Yuschaks’ daughter Madison, the impact Dr. Chinnakaruppan had was the difference between life or the unfortunate alternative.

“Madison got Group B strep meningitis and was in septic shock at 12 hours of life. As a labor and delivery nurse, I knew what this meant for my daughter,” Yuschak says.

In women, Group B streptococcus (GBS) is one of the many bacteria that live in the body. While it’s rare, GBS can pass from a pregnant woman to her fetus during labor, happening to 1-2 babies out of every 100 when the mother does not receive treatment with antibiotics during labor.

“From the moment we reached the NICU, Dr. Chinnakaruppan was there for my husband and me,” Yuschak says. “She was direct, serious with us and explained everything more than once. At first these may sound like things a patient wouldn’t want, but me being a nurse and my husband a doctor, we needed this from her – for her to take control and to tell two parents in the medical field what was happening, the odds and exactly how we needed to fight it.”

With Dr. Chinnakaruppan’s guidance, Madison overcame her medical complications after 21 days in the NICU.

“As parents our best days were with Dr. Chinnakaruppan who it felt like lived in the NICU during Madison’s fight. We knew she knew Madison and we knew we could trust her to save our baby’s life,” Yuschak says. “A few months after Madison’s stay in the NICU, Dr. Chinnakaruppan came down to see me while I was working in the hospital. I gave her a hug and was able to tell her she saved my baby. It was the greatest feeling looking her in the eyes and telling her what she meant to us. She will always be our hero. In a very dark time, she was who kept us together, who treated us like equals, and who gave our daughter the best possible outcome. Dr. Chinnakaruppan, we love you.”

You can tell when someone loves what they do, and from the Yuschaks’ story and others, it’s evident Dr. Chinnakaruppan is one of those people – one who puts her heart into what she does every day. As a neonatologist in the Level IV NICU at Lehigh Valley Reilly Children’s Hospital, located at Lehigh Valley Hospital–Cedar Crest, Dr. Chinnakaruppan has the opportunity to provide the highest level of intensive care to the region’s smallest and sickest babies. It is an honor to have her as part of the NICU team.