British couple with Covid-19 rush to marry in intensive care

Seriously ill couple marry moments before groom is sedated

British couple Elizabeth Kerr and Simon O'Brien planned to marry in June. Then Covid-19 struck.

Both caught the disease and were rushed to Milton Keynes University Hospital in the same ambulance when their oxygen levels fell dangerously low.

Ms Kerr and Mr O'Brien became so ill that medical staff scrambled to organise a wedding before it was too late. When Mr O'Brien's condition got worse, it was decided he should be transferred to the intensive care unit.

Even that did not stop them: staff delayed his intubation just long enough for 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," Ms Kerr said.

"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 now as high as 80 per cent in the ICU, a happy ending was far from certain.

But Mr O'Brien's condition improved and the newlyweds reunited on a Covid-19 ward where both are slowly recovering, although still receiving oxygen.

"We had to wait a few days for our first kiss," Ms Kerr told Reuters.

When Ms Kerr, 31, and Mr O'Brien, 36, arrived at the hospital in southern England, both needed a machine to breathe. They were placed on separate wards for Covid-19 patients.

Ms Kerr, a nurse at nearby Buckingham hospital, had told medics the couple planned to wed in June, but with their condition deteriorating, nurse Hannah Cannon asked her if they wanted to marry in the hospital.

Ms Kerr said she was told it could be her only chance.

Squeezing her husband's arm and welling up with tears as she recalled the events, she said: "Those are words I never ever want to hear again."

The ceremony took place on January 12, three days after the couple arrived in hospital.

Elizabeth Kerr, 31, and Simon O'Brien, 36, hold hands in a COVID-19 ward, days after they married in an ICU (Intensive Care Unit) when both had become critically ill with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), and were uncertain of their chances of surviving, in Milton Keynes University Hospital, Milton Keynes, Britain, January 20, 2021. Picture taken January 20, 2021. REUTERS/Toby Melville

Ms Cannon was a witness and filmed the marriage for the couple's family and friends. 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," Ms Cannon said.

Moments after saying "I do", Mr O'Brien was sedated and spent the night on mechanical ventilation.

Sitting next to each other and clutching hands after his partial recovery, the couple believe their survival was down to the staff's quick thinking.

Ms Kerr said the terrifying experience of fighting for every breath made clear what was important: the people you love.

"That is everything that matters, everything," she said. "Absolutely," Mr O'Brien agreed, speaking through his oxygen mask.

Ms Kerr said: "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."