4-Year-Old Hasn't Forgotten About His Favorite NICU Nurse, Their Reunion Has Everyone In Tears

Meet The topilko family: Trevor, Sarah, Connor, and Bently. A very busy, happy, healthy family. Four years earlier, it was a different story. Conner was born at 27 weeks. he weighted 2lb., 1oz. In fact, he was not much bigger than two pounds of butter. sarah developed a life-threatening condition during her pregnancy and was in multi-organ failure.

Baby Connor had an emergency delivery, while mommy was fighting to survive on the operating table. This is not how they pictured becoming new parents. But then they met nurse Gwenn O'Neill Stollery NICU, Royal Alexandra hospital Edmonton, Canada. Connor was in the hospital for his first 65 days. Gwenn did some very special things for him during that time. she made tiny clothes fit a tiny boy.

The topilkos want to say thanks to Nurse Gwenn. Nurse Gwenn is called to a team meeting to discuss a complex case in the NICU. It is really Conner's case from four years ago. Gwenn's manager, Karen, and the whole health care team are in on the surprise. The family is hiding out, ready to surprise Gwenn. The best surprise of all was seeing healthy children whom she had saved as infants, running to her side to give her a hug. She was their hero.

Gwenn O'Neill loved being able to stay in contact with families to see how their little ones were doing, but she never would have guessed she would be personally meeting by them just for an instant of thanks.

Working in a NICU team is a bittersweet experience. Each day you help welcome new babies on this world, you check their vitals and make sure they are all right and then you send them off on their merry way, but it is not the case for all of the babies. Every once in a while a baby is born with some sort of a complication, and you have to be there to get them through it all, and statistically speaking, not all cases have a happy ending.

At the end of the day, you take your patients’ problems with you because there is no off switch, you are just a human. People often forget that the doctors and nurses are just human and that it must be hard for them to go through what you are going through multiple times in their lives with all of their patients. Thankfully, some of them remember, and they make it their job to thank the person who helped them.

NICU nurses are angels it takes a very strong human to be in the NICU taking care of not only babies fighting for their lives but to take care of the parents who are scared to death. You leave a piece of your heart there each time you leave and the people that care for your baby become the most important people in your life. Parents don't forget these things, even when they're looking up at their son, who is now much taller than they are. And they also do not neglect the care that NICU nurses give to the children in their care, as well as to the child's parents.

Working in a NICU team is a bittersweet experience. Each day you help welcome new babies on this world, you check their vitals and make sure they are alright and then you send them off on their merry way, but it’s not the case for all of the babies. Every once in awhile a baby is born with some sort of a complication, and you have to be there to get them through it all, and statistically speaking, not all cases have a happy ending. At the end of the day, you take your patients’ problems with you because there is no off switch, you are just a human.

People often forget that the doctors and nurses are just human, and that it must be hard for them to go through what you are going through multiple times in their lives with all of their patients. Thankfully, some of them remember, and they make it their job to thank the person who helped them.

In this video we see the most awesome surprise thank you for one special NICU nurse. She is part of a team that delivers care that make a big difference for patients and families every day. An Edmonton couple returns to the Royal Alexandra Hospital to thank a neonatal intensive care nurse who provided them extraordinary support four years ago when their first child was born after only 27 weeks gestation.

Credit to 'AHSChannel/Albeta Health Services'.