The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) has awarded Inspira Health's Deborah F...
Read MoreWith equipment purchased through a grant from The Superhero Project Inc. to the Deborah F. Sager Memorial Fund, the care team at the Deborah F. Sager Neonatal Intensive Care Unit will soon be able to provide comprehensive care for newborns with neurological trauma related to reduced blood-oxygen levels. Located in Inspira Medical Center Vineland, the NICU has provided care for more than 4,000 babies since opening in 2012.
“We are grateful to The Superhero Project for supporting our babies and the NICU team with this generous grant,” said Amy Mansue, president and CEO of Inspira Health. “This grant will allow us to keep even more babies in our NICU, close to loved ones and together with the care team who has already established a bond with the family.”
The new equipment, which will go live in Q1 2026, includes an EEG device for monitoring brain activity in real time. With this new technology, the care team can now provide comprehensive body cooling therapy and the necessary monitoring and imaging, eliminating the need for transfers in most cases.
"We are so thankful to The Superhero Project, the Deborah F. Sager Memorial Fund and the Inspira Health Foundation for helping us acquire this technology," said Ashish Gupta, M.D., section chief of Neonatology at Inspira Health and director of Nemours Children's Health Partnerships. “We will be able to care for babies who experience hypoxia [the medical term for low oxygen levels] without the need for a transfer. This is preferred because it reduces stress on both the baby and the family, and keeps the care local.”
Nemours Children's Health is the long-time neonatology and pediatrics partner of Inspira Health, providing neonatologists, pediatric hospitalists, educational support and transport resources to Inspira and its other partners. The Deborah F. Sager Memorial Fund is a restricted fund within the Inspira Health Foundation. It supports Inspira’s neonatal and pediatric units and enhances the delivery of high-quality life-saving care to infants in southern New Jersey.
The Superhero Project, a 501c3 non-profit organization, is a labor of love, started in 2015, by an ordinary mom in extraordinary circumstances. Like the 1:10 families across the US who experience premature birth, founder Kelly Gallagher was heartbroken when she realized that she would have to leave her twin boys behind after delivering them 8 weeks early in the summer of 2014.
The Superhero Project works to bridge the gap between home and hospital for families, donating care packages, assisting with financial grants, providing assistance to secure technology that allows families to see their baby 24/7 when they cannot be bedside, and working hard to help all mothers and fathers feel loved.
The grant made to Inspira was funded through a Family Fundraiser called Chillin with Dylan and in collaboration with The Superhero Project, which celebrates the “miraculous” birth of Dylan Roberts in 2018. Dylan spent nearly a month in a NICU and benefitted from body cooling therapy, which his parents believe is exactly what saved his life.
“This will be so meaningful to our NICU families whose babies need body-cooling therapy,” said Christl Dooley, B.S.N, R.N.C.-OB, assistant vice president for Maternal Child Health Service at Inspira Health. “Keeping babies close to their families fosters strong bonds, which help our babies heal and thrive.”
The Deborah F. Sager NICU cares for infants of any gestational age and has taken care of babies born as early as 22 weeks and weighing under one pound at birth.
