Former NICU baby plays special role in Brandon nurse’s wedding

BRANDON, Fla. - A Brandon NICU nurse and a Kansas City couple with their adoptive son created a bond so strong, the boy was the ring bearer at the nurse's wedding.

The backstory:

Kansas City couple, Ken and Elizabeth Smith, have tried many ways to have a baby of their own and explored adoption. In July 2022, they matched up with a Bay Area woman who was pregnant with a boy. 

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Dig deeper:

In October 2022, the Smiths were tailgating at a Kansas City Chiefs game when they got a call from a Tampa number. Elizabeth said, "They were like, 'guess what? Your baby is here," Ken added, "The whole parking lot was cheering." 

They swiftly left the game, packed up, and drove overnight to HCA Florida Brandon to meet their new son, who they'd name Rhett.

Rhett was born five weeks premature and was placed in the NICU. The Smiths met Rhett for the first time the following day, along with Nurse Gabby Chandler.

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"She was just constantly coming to our room asking if we needed anything," Ken said. "She'd come to give him his baths instead of the nurse that should be doing them."

What they're saying:

Elizabeth said Chandler calmed many of the nerves she had over the next 18 days Rhett was at the hospital. 

"Gabby really was just kind of like my sanity," she said. "She was just the calm that we needed to get us through."

Once Rhett was discharged, the couple remained at their Airbnb awaiting paperwork from the state that would allow them to go home.

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"She [Chandler] would come over and watch him, so that we could sleep," Ken said. 

"I truly just love her so much," Elizabeth said. "She's really a special part of our lives." 

Big picture view:

So special, the family invited Chandler to Kansas City for Rhett's first birthday.

"They used to call him like, I was his first girlfriend and things like that, so they were like, 'if you're not getting married to him. We're going to be at your wedding," Chandler said. 

Chandler took that literally and invited the family to her wedding last January in Thonotosassa.

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"I made their daughter Madison one of my bridesmaids, and I made Rhett my ring bearer," she added. "It is so cute, because at first Sam [Chandler's husband], and I made him a little wagon, and he was not into it. Seconds before I walked down the aisle, I was like, 'it is his world. I do not care.' and so his dad ended up walking him down the aisle."

Chandler said she and the Smiths had plans to see each other again this month. 

"We were supposed to take a trip up there in July...but then I got pregnant, so we have to figure that out," she said. 

Chandler hopes her child someday grows a close bond with Rhett.  

"It's nice to see the rewarding outcome that if you treat the family like you would treat your own," she said. 

Hillsborough CountyHealth Care