A neonatal nurse at Good Hope Hospital has been caring for a premature baby boy, 22 years after she looked after his mum.

In an amazing coincidence, Suzanne Michael was staggered to realise the tiny baby Romeo was the child of a neonate she had cared for at the end of the 1990s.

Suzanne, who works on the Special Care Baby Unit, has been working at Good Hope since 1986, having started her nursing career on International Nurses Day in 1980.

Over the past 35 years Suzanne has helped cared for thousands of premature or poorly newborns, but she had never cared for both mother and baby – until now.

Tia Jones was born prematurely at Good Hope on 21 February 1999 at just 27 weeks. She spent approximately three months on the Special Care Baby Unit until she was ready to go home.

Now, 22 years later, Tia found herself back on the unit following the birth of her son Romeo, on 24 April 2021 after he was born prematurely at 33 weeks.

The pair only realised that they had in fact met back in 1999 when they were having a chat and Tia mentioned she had been on the unit as a baby. After checking the dates, Suzanne realised she was working on the unit at that time and would have been one of the nurses caring for Tia as a baby.

Suzanne said: “I don’t recognise Tia because the last time I saw her she was so tiny, although I do vaguely remember the name ‘Tia’ because at that time it wasn’t a very common name.”

While on the unit, Romeo has been dressed in the exact same clothes Tia wore when she was there as a baby herself over two decades ago.