DR. WHO Harini Chenna, MD
Long before she was calming anxious patients before surgery and teaching residents in the operating room, Dr. Harini Chenna was flipping across her family’ s living room.
The couch doubled as a vault. The floor became a gymnastics mat. Her parents never complained.
“ They were so nice to let me use the couch as a vault,” she laughed.“ And they still have that couch!”
It’ s an image that says almost everything about Dr. Chenna. There is joy, movement and determination, but perhaps most importantly, there is family. Every opportunity she has embraced – from competitive gymnastics to medicine, from becoming Derby Queen to joining the University of Louisville faculty – has been rooted in the unwavering support of parents who believed in their children before anyone else did.
“ I feel really lucky to have the opportunities that I’ ve had,” she said.“ I never would have had any of this if our parents hadn’ t taken every risk they have. They came to this country with nothing, but they’ ve built the world for us. We are so fortunate to have parents who are the definition of selfless.”
Growing up in Owensboro, Kentucky, she wasn’ t surrounded by physicians. Her parents worked outside of medicine, but they encouraged curiosity, discipline and service. She and her older brother, now also a physician in St. Louis, Missouri, discovered a passion for medicine early, supported by parents who never questioned their ambitions.
Today, despite an accomplished career as an anesthesiologist and interventional pain physician, she still speaks about her family with unmistakable warmth. She is especially close with her parents, brother,
30 LOUISVILLE MEDICINE
by Kathryn Vance
niece and nephew, describing them not simply as relatives, but as her closest friends.
“ We’ re best friends,” she said.“ Having that close relationship with my family has always kept me very grounded and they are my anchors, always.”
Her niece and nephew have grown up with their aunt cheering them on just as her parents once cheered for her at gymnastics meets. Even with a demanding academic medical career, she has remained present in their lives, watching them grow from infancy into teenagers.
“ My parents are my world,” she said.“ I would drop everything, at any minute, at any time.”
That philosophy doesn’ t stop at home.
When she teaches residents, she offers them one guiding principle above all others.“ I ask what kind of doctor they want to be,” she said.“ They of course want to be great, compassionate doctors. Someone who treats everyone like their family and friends. So that’ s what I teach and that’ s what I go into work every day trying to achieve.”
Medicine may have become her profession, but sports shaped the physician she would become. As a child, she danced ballet before eventually finding her true athletic home in gymnastics. She competed until starting undergrad while also swimming and playing tennis, developing a deep appreciation for discipline, conditioning and resilience. Looking back, she sees those years as preparation for medicine in ways she couldn’ t have anticipated.
“ I think being an athlete my whole life taught me the reality of