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A Houston man whose heart stopped on his wedding day ended up getting married at Houston's Memorial Hermann Hospital, Fox 26 reported.
"The emergency room physicians and the nursing staff went above and beyond," the groom's physician, Dr. Sriram Nathan, told the station. "They were able to try to get the chaplain there and all the necessary people who are supposed to be there and the wedding happened in the emergency room, and I was so happy for him."
The patient, identified in the story only as Frank, was diagnosed 10 years ago with congestive heart failure even though he was only in his 30s, the story said. He has a heart pump and implanted defibrillator that is activated if his heart stops. That is exactly what happened on the day he was set to marry his fiancee, Tamika.
"I stopped and got an espresso, ended up getting a double shot and it cost me," Frank told the station.
He called Tamika and told her, "Baby, my defibrillator went off four times."
He was rushed by ambulance to the emergency room.
"He is having this lethal electrical disturbance of his heart, and at the same time he's telling me that today's his wedding day, and he's been waiting for this for a long time," Nathan said. "And how do you want us to proceed with this? And I kind of stopped and I said, ‘Oh no, this is not supposed to happen.’ The man had been waiting for a year-plus for this joyous moment to happen. And then here he is, is critically ill and how is his fiancée going to take it?"
After the impromptu emergency room wedding, Tamika went on to the reception and Frank stayed in touch from his hospital bed.
Frank is now doing better and hopes to have a heart transplant soon, the station reported.
"God's been good. He has renewed me and brought me back to my senses," he said. "The people at Memorial Hermann have been great, Dr. Nathan and the whole staff, they've been great, and they've been working with me to achieve my health goals," Frank told the station.