MILTON KEYNES (UK) – COVID played spoilsport when Britons Elizabeth Kerr and Simon O’Brien planned to get married in June.
Unfortunately, both of them became infected and they had to be rushed to Milton Keynes University Hospital in the same ambulance when their oxygen levels plummeted dangerously.
The duo became so sick that medical staff took the initiative to organise a wedding before it was too late. When O’Brien’s condition took a turn for the worse, they decided to shift him to the intensive care unit (ICU).
But the staff delayed his intubation long enough to enable them to tie the knot.
“They told me that we wouldn’t be able to get married after all, because they were going to have to intubate Simon and put him under,” Kerr reminisced.
“But they held off for another hour. And he just, just rallied in that time, just long enough for us to get married.”
With mortality rates reaching as high as 80% in the ICU, they were uncertain of a happy ending to the episode.
But he gradually recovered and the newlyweds reunited in a COVID-19 ward where they are recuperating, although they still require oxygen support.
“We had to wait a few days for our first kiss,” Kerr said.
When Kerr, 31, and O’Brien, 36, were brought to hospital, they required a CPAP machine to breathe. They were taken to different wards. A nurse at the nearby Buckingham hospital had told medics the duo planned to get married in June, but with their condition worsening, nurse Hannah Cannon asked her if they wanted to tie the knot 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 with misty eyes as she held her husband’s hand tightly.
When hospital staff rushed to get a wedding licence, O’Brien’s health deteriorated further and doctors decided to move him to the ICU which was reserved for the sickest patients where he would be placed in ventilator support.
The wedding took place on January 12 at 5.30 pm, three days after the couple arrived in hospital.
One of the witnesses was Cannon, who recorded the marriage for the couple’s family and family, and the catering department provided the cake.
“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,” Cannon said.
A few moments after he said “I do”, O’Brien was given sedative drugs and he spent the night on mechanical ventilation.
While sitting next to each other and holding hands, the duo believes their survival was because of the staff’s quick thinking.
According to Kerr, the terrifying experience of fighting for every breath made her realise what was important: the people you love.
“That is everything that matters, everything” she said. “Absolutely,” O’Brien said through his oxygen mask.
Kerr added: “If we hadn’t had each other and we hadn’t been given that opportunity to get married, I don’t think both of us would be here now.”