Twenty-eight years after being born prematurely, Brandon Seminatore found the nurse who cared for him as a premie—she’s part of the team where he’s a pediatric resident.
Seminatore is in his second year of residency for child psychology at Stanford University. Last month, he started a rotation at Packard Children’s Hospital, where he was born prematurely at 29 weeks and spent over a month in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
Seminatore recalled that scary time through his parents. “I heard stories of what it was like and understood the concern my parents had for my health,” he said to BuzzFeed News. “For instance, there were times I would stop breathing and even turn blue.”
A nurse named Vilma Wong was his primary caretaker at the beginning of his life, and he apparently made an impression on her.
Nearly three decades later, when Seminatore joined the team, Wong approached him because she thought his last name sounded familiar. When Seminatore mentioned that he was a premie at Packard Children’s Hospital, Wong remembered why she recognized his name. “To confirm, I asked him if his dad was a police officer,” Wong said. “There was a big silence and then he asked me if I was Vilma. I said yes.”
Seminatore’s mother had told him to look out for her but thought she would already be retired. The two took a picture together and sent it to his parents. They responded with a picture of Wong holding a tiny Seminatore on her lap.
The hospital shared both pictures together in a #WaybackWednesday post about the heartwarming reunion. The post has since been seen over 35,000 times and shared nearly 5,000 times.
https://www.facebook.com/stanfordchildrens/posts/10156596936912661
Wong says she was shocked at first but then overjoyed. “I took care of him almost 30 years ago and now he’s as a pediatric resident to the same population he was part of when he was born,” she said.
H/T BuzzFeed News