After COVID-19 ruined wedding plans, doctors exchange vows at hospital in their PPE

While the Coronavirus outbreak has brought daily life to a grinding halt and doctors have been working feverishly to save lives at the forefront of the war on the pandemic, a pair of medics got married at the labour ward of the Duke University Hospital in North Carolina. Shelsun Tsai and Michael Sun had to cancel their grand wedding event due to social distancing protocol. They exchanged vows in their PPE garments in the midst of their hospital duty, watched by colleagues at the hospital as well as friends and family via video call.

An obstetrician resident at the hospital, Tsai was quoted as saying that her fellow medics were aware that she had cancelled the marriage scheduled on April 11, but they hadn’t realised that it was the big day until she reminded them. A plan was formed thereon.  

Sun, her husband, is a resident in Duke’s psychiatry program and they were both present at the hospital at the same time. Further, Tsai elaborated that starting 8 am and in between attending the patients, the hospital staff got things done and made small arrangements such as wedding dress that they designed out of the hazmat suit. By 3 pm the wedding ceremony started, she further added. 

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Hospital, a 'work family'

A nurse from the labour and delivery unit, with the hospital staff as witnesses, “officiated” the small ceremony that involved flowers and placards mentioning the bride and groom’s names. It was absolutely amazing, Tsai told international media reporters. They’re my work family and we really try to take care of each other, she was quoted as saying. 

As over 677,056 confirmed cases of the novel Coronavirus have emerged in the US, and more than 29,000 have died due to the disease, several couples were reported to have called off their wedding plans. In another similar incident, a Michigan couple reportedly received more than 100 cardboard cutouts to pose as stand-ins for the family and friends as the guests could not attend the wedding due to the stay-at-home measures amid the Coronavirus outbreak. 

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