So a nurse who cared for a premature child 28 years ago has just discovered this year that her colleague is the same baby she cared for.
In 1990, nurse Vilma Wong, took care of premature baby named, Brandon Seminatore, now a second-year paediatric neurology resident at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Stanford, California. 28 years after, the now grown baby began working with the same nurse in the hospital where he was delivered.
It was Vilma Wong that discovered that her new colleague was the child she cared for 28 years ago after she thought Brandon’s name sounded familiar. So she made enquiries and discovered he was the preemie she cared for years ago.
She told the hospital’s website:
Brandon was on my team and taking care of one of my patients. I asked who he was and his last name sounded very familiar.
I kept asking questions, like where he was from and he told me he was from San Jose, and that as a matter of fact, he was a premature baby born at our hospital. I then got very suspicious because I remember being the primary nurse to a baby with the same last name.
To confirm my suspicion, I asked him if his dad was a police officer. And there was a big silence. Then he asked me if I was Vilma. I said yes!
Brandon later explained that his mum, who had kept hold of a photo of Vilma holding her son, had asked him to keep an eye out for the nurse when he began his residency at the hospital, but he simply assumed she would have retired by now and didn’t bother.
Brandon, who was born at 29 weeks, described meeting the nurse as “surreal”.
He said:
When Vilma recognised my name, it truly sank in that I was one of these babies.
I’ve come full circle and I’m taking care of babies with the nurse that took care of me.
The hospital shared the beautiful reunion on Facebook with the caption:
A chance encounter at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford has led to a heart-warming reunion between nurse and patient. Brandon, one of our pediatric residents, was born 28 years ago in our NICU–then just 29 weeks old. Vilma was his primary care nurse. Fast forward nearly 30 years, and Vilma recognized Brandon’s name while he was rounding at our hospital. What a memory! Here’s a special look at them both then and now. #WaybackWednesday
