Amanda Scarpinati, a former patient at Albany Medical Center in New York, has finally reunited with a nurse who treated her 38 years ago. Scarpinati was hospitalized for third-degree burns when she was just 3 months old after rolling off of a couch and falling dirctly onto a steam humidifier. For decades, Scarpinati kept a from 1977 of her and one of the nurses.
Scarpinati said that when she was bullied, she would gaze at the photo of her and the nurse and talk to her. Although she didn’t know who the nurse was, Scarpinati was comforted by the picture and the nurse, who seemed so sincere, taking care of her.
After searching for 20 years, Scarpinati shared her photo on Facebook in an attempt to find the nurse who cared for her. Her post went viral and she was quickly able to identify the nurse in the photo. A woman who had worked in the hospital as a nurse during the time Scarpinati was treated, identified the woman in the photo as Susan Berger.
At the time the photo was taken, Berger was only 21 years old, fresh out of college. She is now the Executive Vice President at Cazenovia College in New York, and it turns out she had held on to exactly the same photo as Scarpinati. Those close to Berger say she often spoke fondly of the baby she’d treated so many years ago.She remembered how calmly Scarpinati was after having surgery. Berger said that most often, babies were either sleeping or crying after a surgery but Scarpinati was awake and calm.
Shortly after learning the infamous nurse’s name, Scarpinati arranged a meeting with her, and they were able to reunite after so many years. Check out the video!