When Anderson Rickman celebrates his tenth birthday this month, his family won’t just be marking another year—they’ll be celebrating a decade of life that almost slipped away. And in a beautiful full-circle moment, Anderson is about to meet the nurse who, ten years ago, listened to a young mother’s fears and helped save his life.

Chelsea Gutierrez, Anderson’s mom, still remembers the moment with vivid clarity. Anderson had been born seemingly healthy, passing all his newborn tests, and the family was preparing to be discharged from the hospital. But Chelsea’s maternal instinct told her something was wrong.

“Every time I would go to feed him, he would fall asleep,” Chelsea recalls. “I just knew something wasn’t right.”

That’s when Candy, the lactation specialist on duty, entered their lives. Chelsea tearfully explained her concerns, and instead of brushing them off, Candy took her seriously. She called in a second pediatric opinion—a decision that would prove lifesaving.

It turned out Anderson was suffering from silent seizures, something no one had detected. That night, he was life-flighted to Vanderbilt and spent three and a half weeks in the NICU.

“What I thought was him sleeping was actually seizures every fifteen minutes,” Chelsea explains. “Because of Candy, he’s alive. If we’d gone home, we wouldn’t have seen the pediatrician for three more days.”

The bond between Anderson's family and Candy didn’t end there. A month after his recovery, Candy reached out on Facebook to check on Anderson, and they’ve stayed in touch ever since. Over the years, she has continued to be a helpful presence, even offering breastfeeding advice when Chelsea had her second child, Norah. Their relationship quietly endured—woven through social media likes, comments, and occasional check-ins.

Now, ten years later, Anderson is preparing for a big milestone. After months of seizure medications and follow-up care, his upcoming neurologist visit will determine whether he’s officially cleared.

“It’s like a little ten-year ceremony,” Chelsea says, smiling. “It marks that he’s made it.”

But before that milestone comes another special moment: Anderson will finally meet Candy—the woman who changed the course of his life. Though he knows his birth story, he has no idea that the nurse who helped save him is still in town, or that he’s able to meet her face to face.

A joyful reunion took place during a break in Candy's shift at a local hospital on April 21st. Anderson was finally able to thank the nurse whose instincts and compassion made all the difference. For Chelsea, reuniting her son with Candy feels deeply meaningful.

“It’s rare in life that you get to go back and say thank you to the people who stepped in at exactly the right time,” she says. “This is one of those rare moments.”

Reflecting on Anderson’s journey, Chelsea is filled with gratitude—not just for his survival, but for the community of people, like Candy, who helped along the way.

“Candy took nursing to the next level,” she says. “She listened, she cared, and she acted. That’s why we get to celebrate Anderson’s tenth birthday.”

In a world often filled with busy routines and rushed decisions, Anderson’s story is a reminder of the power of human connection—and how one nurse’s care left an unforgettable mark on a family’s life. As Anderson looks forward to this long-awaited meeting, it’s a celebration not only of survival, but also of kindness, intuition, and the lasting bonds that can form in life’s most fragile moments.