'I was overjoyed': This nurse's new colleague was the baby she took care of 28 years ago

Imagine starting a regular day at work as a nurse, meeting a new colleague (as you do), only to find out that one of them is a 28-year-old who you happened to care for when he was just a tiny baby?

This is, heart-warmingly, exactly what happened when 54-year-old Vilma Wong, a NICU nurse who has worked at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto, California for 32 years, happened to meet 28-year-old Dr Brandon Seminatore, currently completing his residency at the same hospital – he was born there at 29 weeks in April 1990.

As he was born prematurely, Vilma cared for Brandon for a month while he was in the NICU and when she met him all those years later, instantly recognised his name – but couldn't quite remember why.  

"I kept asking him where he was from," the nurse said.

It wasn’t until Seminatore revealed he’d been a patient in the unit 28 years earlier that the nurse put two and two together.

Adorably, Seminatore even found a picture of himself as a baby being held by Vilma but added that it was "surreal" to meet her.

Both were delighted at the chance discovery. The 28-year-old's mother had asked him to keep an eye out for Vilma, but he presumed she would have retired.

“I was in shock initially but overjoyed to know that I took care of him almost 30 years ago and now he’s as a paediatric resident to the same population he was part of when he was born," Vilma said.

The hospital shared their encounter on social media because surely such reunions don't happen every day!

"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," said a post shared on Facebook by Stanford Children's Health.

The post quickly went viral, garnering nearly 30,000 reactions and comments.

"He's waving too!" said one. 

What are the chances? And what a reunion!