The neonatal critical care unit is not the typical setting for get-togethers of any kind. However, it turned into one when a NICU nurse and a previous premature infant that she had treated for 33 years earlier happened to meet paths again.

At Saint Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey, on the 30th of January, Zayne Alexander Caldwell was brought into the world. Because he was born 10 weeks early and weighed three pounds, he needed to be taken to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

In 1986, David had the same circumstance when he was born around six weeks prematurely. He went through the same struggles. The proud father took his own baby book with him to the hospital so that he could compare his newborn images with those of his first kid.

One photograph in particular stood out to Renata Freydin as she looked through David’s old baby pictures with his fiancee, David, when they were together with Renata Freydin.

The picture showed a little David being cuddled by his mother’s favorite NICU nurse, a lady called Lissa McGowan. David had just been born at the time.  Almost immediately, Renata was able to identify her as the nurse who had been caring for Zayne for the previous three days.

Hearing that the same nurse who had cared for him when he was a baby is now the same nurse who is caring for his preterm kid was an event that was both emotional and surprising for the father.

He stated, “It’s been 33 years, and something like this does not occur on a daily basis.

She is the only nurse that is mentioned in my baby book. My baby book fell apart, but I managed to save the picture from within.”

David and Renata had an appointment to see the nurse, and their intention was to inform her about the incredible coincidence. The pair waited until Lissa’s next shift, which was on Valentine’s Day, before showing the picture to her and telling her about the unique connection she had with Zayne and David.

Lissa said that she had never experienced something such to this before. ”

It’s sort of strange to have your premature infant return to you after 34 years… but to have a father come in and be the father of a premature infant is a very other thing.”

David believes that the fact that her mother, who passed away in 2004, is watching out for them is a clue that this circumstance is a message from her.

David can still recall the day when he was a little kid and he questioned his mother about the lady who was holding him in pic. “This event is almost like my mum trying to tell me that she is watching over both me and my kid.”

Zayne, who has been receiving excellent care from his nurses, is now doing very well.