British couple Elizabeth Kerr and Simon O’Brien are planning to get married in June. Then COVID-19 hit and finally got married at Milton Keynes Hospital
Both were diagnosed with the disease and rushed to Milton Keynes Hospital in the same ambulance when their oxygen levels were dangerously low.
Ms Kerr and Mr. O’Brien became very ill, and the medical staff scrambled to arrange the wedding before it was too late.
As O’Brien’s condition worsened, it was decided to transfer him to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
That didn’t stop them either: the staff was too late to tie up his intubation.
“They told me we could not get married after all, because they had to intimate Simon and put him down,” Ms Kerr recalled.
“But they stopped for another hour, and he rallied at that point, long enough for us to get married.”
With mortality rates now 80 percent higher in the ICU, the happy ending is not certain.
Mr. O’Brien’s condition improved and the newlyweds reunited on the COVID – 19 ward, where the two are gradually recovering, although receiving oxygen.
“We had to wait a few days for our first kiss,” Kerr told the media.
The couple said there was only one chance of a hospital wedding
When Ms Kerr, 31, and Mr O’Brien, 36, arrived at the hospital in the south of England, they both needed a CPAP machine to breathe. COVID-19 patients were placed in special wards.
MS Kerr, a nurse at a nearby Buckingham hospital, told doctors the couple planned to get married in June, but as their condition deteriorated, nurse Hannah Cannon asked if she wanted to get married at the hospital.
Kerr recalled that this was the only chance she had.
Recalling these events, her husband clasped his hand and burst into tears, saying: “Those are words I would never want to hear again.”
Ms Conan witness and the couple filmed the wedding for family and friends. The catering department provided the cake.
“With so much teamwork … we were able to give them a wedding, the wedding they originally intended was not necessarily, but certainly positive, great and memorable for them,” Ms Conan said.
A few moments after saying “I will” Mr. O’Brien was intoxicated and spent the night for mechanical ventilation.
Sitting next to each other and holding hands after his partial recovery, the couple believe their survival will not diminish the quick thinking of the crew.
Ms Kerr’s terrifying experience of fighting for every breath made it clear what’s important: People you love.
“It’s all important, everything,” she says. “Absolutely,” Mr. O’Brien admitted, speaking through his oxygen mask.
Ms Kerr added: “I do not think the two of us would be here now if we did not have each other and give us that opportunity to get married.”
