Left to right: Nurse Julie Griffice, Shiam Zafar and new baby Areeb Ahmad, Dr. Regan Theiler and two-year-old Aasim Ahmad, Meixiang Xu and new baby Roger Luo, Tian Luo, Abdul Wakeel and his four-year-old daughter Sumayyah Wakeel.
Tian Luo and Abdul Wakeel are both research scientists in Jere McBride’s lab in the
Department of Pathology. They’ve both been at UTMB for five years. Late last year, they both learned their wives were pregnant. On Saturday, June 9, they ran into each other unexpectedly on the labor and delivery floor of John Sealy Hospital. Both their wives had gone into labor the day before. And wouldn’t you know it, the same doctor — Regan Theiler — delivered both their babies Saturday within just a few hours of each other.
The families came back together a few days later for a group photo at the hospital with Dr. Theiler and Julie Griffice, the RN who worked with the mothers throughout their pregnancies. As the conversation ensued, more connections surfaced. Theiler had delivered Wakeel and his wife Shiam Zafar’s older son Aasim Ahmad two years ago. And Luo’s wife Meixiang Xu is a post-doc in the
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Mothers, babies, siblings, husbands and clinical staff are all doing fine.