told her Dr Vaidya had moved on but that they would try to help track him down for her .

After digging through piles of archived paper records , hospital staff discovered his whereabouts .

When Erika called his new hospital , she was told that it was his last day — not just his last day but his last day in the country .

It took some gentle persuasion , but the hospital gave her his personal

number .

“ I rang him up literally as he was

Ciara Seccombe BACK in 1995 , Dr Umesh Vaidya saved

a life that had barely begun .

He had been the neonatologist who

resuscitated Freyja when she and her sister , Imogen , had been born with twin-to-twin transfusion at Westmead Hospital in Sydney .

He had kept in touch with their mother , Erika Wadlow-Smith , who phoned him a few years later on the day he was leaving Australia to fly back to his homeland of India .

But he never met Freyja until December last year when she decided to pay him a surprise visit .

“ I was travelling through India with my friend and realised we would be passing through Pune , where Dr Vaidya now works ” Freyja tells Australian Doctor .

Freyja was born with an Apgar score of 1 .

“ We were in the waiting room surrounded by mums and dads and their babies , and here I was , a six-foot-tall Australian with my best mate .”

She said she expected it to be a quick chat and maybe a handshake — but it proved deeply emotional for both of them .

“ He opened the door and you can just tell that someone is just so beautiful inside and out . He was just like , ‘ Freyja , it is lovely to meet you !’

“ And I cannot remember at what point I just burst into tears , but it was beautiful . I was just gushing to him about what I felt . I think I ended up saying , ‘ Thank you , I am a big fan of your work .’”

For Dr Vaidya , he says it was one of those “ truly memorable events in the life of a doctor ”.

“ It is uncommon to see a neonatal ICU graduate as an adult , let alone one who has flown across continents to meet her doctor ,” he said .

“ There is no greater happiness for a neonatologist than to see the wonderful long-term outcomes of high-risk babies .” Freyja was certainly high risk . Her mother , Erika , recalls Dr Vaidya working on her tiny daughter in the corner of the room . She had been born with an Apgar score of 1 .

“ My friend , a midwife , was there , and she said she had never seen anyone so expertly and quickly intubate a baby like little Freyja .

Freyja Wadlow-Smith and Dr Umesh Vaidya .

“ My friend said if I ’ d had another paediatrician , she might not have made it .”

But last year ’ s reunion may never have happened . Following any lifeand-death medical drama , lives move on — for both patients and doctors .

And this happened here too , at least for a while . But Erika says in the aftermath she was “ really rankled ” by the fact that she had not thanked Dr Vaidya for what he did .

So a few years later , she decided to call Westmead Hospital .

After assuring them she was not trying to sue anybody , the staff there

about to leave for the airport ,” she recalls .

“ He was probably thinking , ‘ Oh God , I am going to be sued .’

“ But he said he had never had anybody get back in touch with him to say thank you .

“ I remember he worked so hard . Even in the throes of it all , I saw what he was doing in the corner of that room saving little Freyja .”

A not-so-little Freyja is now a 29-year-old environmental scientist .

“ Everything healthcare professionals do , I think , is fundamentally founded on wanting to give to the community , and that stems from love ,” she says .

“ You put all this effort and love in , but sometimes they do not get to see how everything turns out .”

She adds : “ It is so lovely to think that my twin sister and I are alive today because of these incredible people all around the world .”

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