After 38 years, a woman who was terribly burned as a baby has been reunited with the nurse who cared for her.
In 1977, when Amanda Scarpinati was 3 months old, she suffered burns to much of her body when she fell off a sofa on to a steam vaporiser and was covered in boiling ointment. She was rushed to Albany Medical Centre in New York state, where photographs – taken for the medical centre's annual report – show her in the arms of a young nurse, wrapped in gauze bandages and gazing at the camera.
She kept the photos for nearly four decades, without knowing who the nurse holding her was. "Growing up as a child, disfigured by the burns, I was bullied and picked on, tormented," she told the Associated Press. "I'd look at those pictures and talk to her, even though I didn't know who she was. I took comfort looking at this woman who seemed so sincere, caring for me." She had several surgeries over the years to repair the damage from the burns.
She attempted to identify the nurse in the photograph 20 years ago, but the photographer, one Carl Howard, had not recorded who the subjects were. Earlier this month, she put the photographs on Facebook, at the suggestion of a friend.
"Within 12 hours, it had gone viral with 5,000 shares across the country," she said. "It was on the local TV news the next morning. I was blown away."
Within 24 hours, a former Albany nurse had identified the picture. Angela Leary sent Scarpinati a message revealing the nurse was Susan Berger, who was 21 and just out of university when the photo was taken.
Berger said she remembered Scarpinati, saying: "She was very peaceful. Usually when babies come out of surgery, they're sleeping or crying. She was just so calm and trusting. It was amazing."
The two women were finally introduced on Tuesday. "I don't know how many nurses would be lucky enough to have something like this happen, to have someone remember you all that time," Berger said. "I feel privileged to be the one to represent all the nurses who cared for her over the years."