{"id":9817,"date":"2018-09-02T15:32:32","date_gmt":"2018-09-02T22:32:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=9817"},"modified":"2018-09-02T15:32:53","modified_gmt":"2018-09-02T22:32:53","slug":"she-helped-save-his-life-28-years-later-he-turns-up-in-her-preemie-ward-as-a-doctor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=9817","title":{"rendered":"She helped save his life. 28 years later, he turns up in her preemie ward \u2014 as a doctor"},"content":{"rendered":"

PALO ALTO \u2014 Something happened last month that showed just how enduring a bond neonatal intensive care nurse Vilma Wong has with her impossibly tiny patients, even after 32 years on the job.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Wong was working a day shift earlier this month at Lucile Packard Children\u2019s Hospital when she spotted a young man in blue scrubs near one of the incubators.<\/p>\n

All medical personnel have to check in at the nurse\u2019s station before examining the prematurely born infants whose frail bodies are tethered to their cots by feeding and breathing tubes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho are you?\u2019\u2019 she asked second-year pediatric resident Brandon Seminatore, who is training to become a child neurologist.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis last name sounded very familiar,\u201d she recalled. \u201cI kept asking where he was from and he told me that he was from San Jose, California, 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.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

To confirm her hunch, she asked him if his dad was a police officer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a big silence,\u2019\u2019 she said, \u201cand then he asked if I was Vilma.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Seminatore was stunned Wong remembered caring for him 28 years ago \u2014 out of the tens of thousands of kids who have passed through the unit since then. She and fellow nurse Kas Pilon are legendary in his family for their kindness and tender care.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeeting Vilma was a surreal experience,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cShe cares deeply for her patients, to the point that she was able to remember a patient\u2019s name almost three decades later.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Seminatore weighed only two pounds and six ounces \u2014 the size of a small pineapple \u2014 when he was rushed in April 1990 after his mother\u2019s emergency C-section to the neonatal intensive care unit known as the NICU (pronounced NICK-U).<\/p>\n

From left, Pediatric Resident Brandon Seminatore and Registered Nurse Vilma Wong react while Wong tells the story fo their reunion at the Stanford Lucile Packard Children\u2019s Hospital, where they both work, in Palo Alto, California, on Thursday, Aug. 30, 2018. Wong and Seminatore reunited decades later after Wong took care of Seminatore when he was prematurely born 13 weeks early at the hospital. (LiPo Ching\/Bay Area News Group)
\nNow, he weighs 134 pounds more and at 5-feet-8 is considerably taller than the 5-pound, 2-ounce baby who left the hospital after more than 40 days in the unit. But he has the same dark eyes and alert expression.<\/p>\n

When Seminatore\u2019s mom heard he was doing a month-long rotation in the NICU, she urged him to ask about both women.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were the most wonderful nurses,\u2019\u2019 said Laura Seminatore, who was a kindergarten teacher in 1990 when her only son was born and is now the principal at St. John Vianney Catholic school in San Jose. \u201cThey helped calm a lot of our fears.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Seminatore had done a similar month-long stint in the unit last year without realizing the nurses from his infancy both still worked there. He said he didn\u2019t ask, figuring they had either moved on or already retired. Wong, now 54, said she loves her work and has no plans to retire.<\/p>\n

\"Vilma
\nNeonatal intensive care nurse Vilma Wong cradles Brandon Seminatore in 1990 at Lucile Packard Children\u2019s Hospital in Palo Alto. (Courtesy of Seminatore family)
\nOnce Seminatore realized he had found Wong, he immediately texted his parents. It didn\u2019t take long for his dad, retired San Jose police officer David Seminatore, to retrieve an old family photo album and find a picture of Wong cradling Seminatore on her lap.<\/p>\n

In the photo, Brandon had just had the breathing tube removed and looks remarkably chipper. By that time, he was able to eat on his own and was beginning to thrive, Wong remembered.<\/p>\n

For years until Seminatore was 11 or 12, the family made a point of attending the NICU\u2019s annual reunion, which will be held later this month for families whose children were treated there. Brandon has two younger sisters who were also born in the same hospital.<\/p>\n

Seminatore, who lives with his husband across the street from the hospital in housing for medical residents, said it\u2019s unclear how much his own history played into his decision to become a healer, though he said it might be a factor.<\/p>\n

For Wong, meeting Seminatore for the second time was a joy.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a nurse,\u2019\u2019 she said, \u201cit\u2019s kind of like your reward.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

The heartwarming story, which the hospital posted on its Facebook page, has been shared more than 3,000 times and drawn more than 700 plaudits. Some messages are from other families who remember \u201cAuntie Vilma\u2019\u2019 fondly.<\/p>\n

\u201cVilma was like my son\u2019s second mom,\u2019\u2019 one woman said.<\/p>\n

Even those who have never met her were touched.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world needs more Vilmas,\u2019\u2019 one said. \u201cThank you for everything.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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