When they said, “In sickness and in health,” they weren’t kidding.
A medical emergency days before their wedding forced a Minnesota couple to tie the knot in the hospital.
Pregnant bride-to-be Ariana Sleen, 23, was taken to the ICU in Duluth, on the coast of Lake Superior, with severe back pain two weeks before her wedding, according to her and her now-husband to KFVS 12.
“I just remember being rushed from room to room, and I was just like, ‘I have no idea what’s going on,’ and then just flashes of waking up and a bunch of people surrounding me,” she said.
Her then-fiance, Chandler Sleen, stayed by her side as her condition worsened — and as medical staff prepared for a potential emergency C-section.
“She had very bad pneumonia, went into septic shock, and that’s when they had to put the [ventilator] tube in,” he said.
“I was definitely very terrified,” he said. “I mean, these are the two most important people in my life right here, and they were both struggling. It was very scary.”
Fortunately, both Ariana and her baby’s condition improved, and she was taken off the ventilator the day before their original wedding date.
The bride said she was soon able to start standing again, which she took as “God’s divine intervention” and that the two were meant to still wed that day.
“All the nurses and everybody came together and put us in what’s known as the ‘Taylor Swift Suite,’ I guess, in the NICU, or the ICU, and we got married,” she said.
The devoted hospital staff teamed up to make the day memorable for the happy couple.
Ariana’s medical team included nurses Madeline Vogel, Olivia Schmidt and Deanna Anderson.
“I just tried to clean up the room a little, make room for a wedding cake,” Anderson said.
Vogel said, “We had to get creative.
“This might top the list for the happiest things I’ve seen at work.”
The expectant mom expressed her gratitude for the quality of care she’d received.
“These ladies have been nothing but the kindest, sweetest people,” she said. “They’ll get an invite to the reception and everything for sure.”
With their wedding under their belt, the couple says they’re looking forward to eventually returning to the hospital to welcome their baby, Sebastian, in June.
“We get to come back to the same spot where we got married,” Ariana said.
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