a wedding at work

yesterday was supposed to be an ordinary day. i had a four hour class in the morning for work. nothing special, just learning our new method of medication administration using a scanning "gun" to prevent medication errors. it was lame. but after class, i went up to my unit to see two of my colleagues who were having their very last days on 8NE. my co-workers are dropping like flies, leaving the in-patient nursing world for lives in the out-patient world - all because what we do on 8ne is heavy. challenging. heart-breaking. overwhelming. and sometimes, AMAZING. like so amazing, that it's hard to deal with. hard to hear. and hard to be a part of.

anyway, when discovering that my unit was short a secretary, i decided to stay on for over-time only if guaranteed to NOT work with patients. isn't that horrible? i had it in me to answer phones, but not to do patient care. so, i stayed for 4 hours in my flip-flops. and it turned out to be one of my most jaw-dropping, heart-warming days at work i've had in 8 years.

are you ready for this story. get the kleenex.

there is a 25 year old woman in our ICU. last week she went to the ER with abdominal pain only to find that she has a terminal, metastatic cancer and has days to weeks to live. crazy, right? to be healthy one week and dying the next. at 25. at about 2:50, my charge nurse said to me, "christa, i need your help. we're planning a wedding. the 25 year old patient wants to marry her boyfriend before she dies in the next 24 hours."

what transpired in the next 2-3 hours is unbelievable. it's the perfect example of teamwork. how one person's vision and efforts can make a difference in a BIG way. and how 20 people, working together, can make a life-changing things happen.

one nurse started making flowers petals out of red construction paper to throw during the "ceremony."

another called a bridal store to donate a veil and gloves (the bride was too sick to stand and/or wear a wedding dress),

the nurse practitioner in charge of the patient's care called friends and colleagues who donated their money and time. i saw her at the edge of the bed, whispering to the patient, "how have you envisioned this day? what can we do to make it special?"

a pulmonary attending brought her photographer husband to the hospital to take wedding photos. on the way, they stopped at a store and bought a wedding cake.

i called a local florist, explained the situation, and within 2 hours the owner of the store personally delivered a bouquet, a boutineer, and lavender rose petals.

my friend c called her husband and said "i need you to bring the pink champagne from our fridge to the hospital ASAP. we have a patient getting married; she's going to die soon." within minutes, c's husband was standing on our unit, champagne and glasses in hand.

the patient's pastor from her church arrived to carry out the ceremony. our hospital chaplain attended and brought candles and bibles and more flowers.

the patient's nurse washed her hair, de-hospitalized the room, and not only turned up machines to help her breathe and turned down machines to stop beeping and squeezing and chirping, but also, helped to make everything look special and appear calm.

there were numerous family members and friends. hospital staff. parents of the bride. parents of the groom.

words can't describe what it felt like on our unit. in some ways, it felt frantic - what takes most brides months to pull off happened in a few hours. and in other ways, it felt magical. there were tears. there was shock. our new manager assisted and turned her eye to the real flowers (that are not allowed on our unit), the real candles, and the champagne. we wrote thank you notes. and patted each other on the back for jobs well done.

this 25 year old will never live to see 26. she will not get to fulfill her dream of becoming a nurse. she will never get to be a parent. she won't grow old with her husband. but she will die knowing that she is united with the love of her life. that people she doesn't even know worked hard to make one of her dreams come true. that sometimes miracles happen - in different ways than you hope - and they are beautiful!