Northwestern Medicine ensures couple can get married before emergency heart surgery
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A Chicago couple is very thankful this week after celebrating a wedding they feared might never happen.
Annesley Clark, 33, and partner Christine Corso had to cancel their nuptials just three weeks before the big day, when it was discovered that Clark had a life-threatening infection and mass growing on their heart, according to Northwestern Medicine.
They needed an immediate open-heart surgery, and time was of the essence. The infection was a complicating factor—increasing the risks from the surgery to the point where Clark's outcome was not clear.
Clark and Corso were determined to say their vows before it was too late. So when Clark's nurses at Northwestern Medicine heard the couple's story, they jumped right into action.
They pulled together a pre-surgery wedding—and got it all done in less than 24 hours.
"Annesley is one of the most positive people I have ever met and constantly uplifts others," Tien Mai, a clinical nurse on 11W Feinberg at Northwestern Memorial, said in a news release. "They asked if it was possible to have a wedding the next day before surgery, and the moment I heard that, I made all the calls necessary. From blowing up balloons at the nurses' station to safely preparing them to walk down the aisle, my whole team made all the details perfect. Seeing Annesley smile as they walked down the aisle was the best feeling."
On Wednesday, Oct. 9—the day before the surgery—nurses turned the hospital waiting room into a wedding venue. They set up balloons, decorations, and a makeshift altar, and gathered Clark's family and friends and dozens of hospital staff.
With that, the marriage was official.
"I am so grateful for the care that I've received from these doctors and nurses," Clark said in the release. "I have spent more than a third of the past 15 months at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Many of the nurses at our hospital wedding were invited to our planned wedding in November. We've built such a great relationship with these people, and I have come to feel so cared for and seen by them. They've seen me in times that are really rough and scary, and I'm so glad they got to witness the enormity of the joy today."
While there was plenty of trepidation surrounding the surgery, there was also gratitude on the part of both Clark and Corso.
"Tomorrow is going to be a big day and knowing that we have folks that will stop everything in their middle of the week to come celebrate us and have one big visit before we go into something pretty scary tomorrow is really meaningful," said Corso. "Just to be able to do our wedding here and have the nurses, and the nursing team, and the doctors and everyone put this together so fast is really, really beautiful."
The following day, Clark's surgery went ahead. Dr. Benjamin Bryner, a cardiac surgeon at Northwestern Medicine Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute, could not go with his usual preference of minimally-invasive surgery because the mass on Clark's heart was too big. Open heart surgery was necessary despite the infection and a suppressed immune system, and the infection wasn't going anywhere until the mass was taken out, Northwestern Medicine said.
Bryner said in the news release that the safest way to go was cardiopulmonary bypass—which allowed surgeons to open the heart and salvage all the blood that was coming out.
The mass was successfully removed from Clark's heart, and they spent a few weeks recovering. Clark and Corso are now looking forward to their first holiday season together as a married couple, Northwestern Medicine said.