London – An engaged couple taken to hospital in the same ambulance with coronavirus (COVID-19) were able to marry moments before the man was sedated and put on a ventilator.
Elizabeth Kerr, 31, and Simon O’Brien, 36, were taken to Milton Keynes University Hospital with breathing difficulties on January 9.
Staff rallied to arrange a wedding as the groom’s condition worsened.
They held off intubating O’Brien so the ceremony could go ahead. The couple are now recovering in hospital.
Kerr, a nurse, and O’Brien had planned to marry in June.
Both contracted the disease and were taken to hospital together when their oxygen levels fell dangerously low.
They were placed on separate wards but when Kerr told nurse Hannah Cannon about their wedding plans, she asked her if they would like to marry in the hospital.
Kerr said she was told it could be their only chance.
“Those are words I never, ever want to hear again,” she said.
However, while staff were securing the wedding licence, O’Brien’s condition further deteriorated and on January 12 he was placed on the intensive care unit, to be put on a ventilator.
They waited to intubate him just long enough for the ceremony to go ahead.
Cannon said: “With lots of teamwork . . . we were able to give them a wedding, not necessarily the wedding that they would have initially intended, but certainly something positive, remarkable and memorable for them to really hold on to.” (BBC)
