A hospital might not be anyone’s ideal wedding venue. But for two patients and their families at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) Pavilion, nurses and staff helped dreams come true by facilitating two weddings in the same week.
Nursing student Alexis Rodriguez and her fiancé, Jeffrey Striddels, of Bensalem, Pa., planned to marry after she finished school. But having been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in August 2023, she was now, a year later, in HUP fighting an aggressive, life-threatening fungal infection. She just wanted to make their union official.
All Rodriguez had in mind, she told her mom, was a white dress and a marriage certificate. Nurse Samantha McCarry, BSN, RN, heard them talking and jumped in.
“She was like, ‘What? No! Can we do a wedding? Please can we do a wedding?’” said Rodriguez, who turned 30 in late August. “Then she came back and said, ‘I have everything planned out—all the nurses are in—our manager loves it.’”
McCarry said that when she overheard Alexis, she knew immediately that the team “would be ready and more than willing to make Alexis’ wedding day so special."
“Everyone deserves happiness, especially when a person is going through so much at such a young age,” she said.
Meaningful and personal
Jill Tuzio, MSN, RN, the nurse manager on the bone marrow transplant unit, where Rodriguez was receiving care that week, was proud though not surprised to see nurses across multiple oncology units come together to plan not just a wedding, but one that was both meaningful and personal for the patient. Oncology nurses build an extraordinary bond with their patients, she said.
“Our staff truly are always trying to go above and beyond and make things special, because several of our patients are not here for a short hospitalization. They’re here for an extended period,” Tuzio said. “I think they know if they had a family member in that room, they would want the same thing.”
Starting Thursday, Aug. 1, the staff worked around the clock, sending spreadsheets back and forth to track the tasks to complete. A nurse connected with a makeup artist who donated their time to make the bride and her family members look beautiful. Others bought and donated (infection-safe) artificial flowers, which they used to assemble bouquets and an arch for the couple to stand in front of.
Several nurses brought in their own wedding dresses so Rodriguez could choose her favorite. One nurse asked Rodriguez what kind of cake she wanted, and a baker donated a two-tiered white cake with gold embellishments that looked just like the patient’s inspiration photo.
On the morning of Monday, Aug. 5, the staff strung up family photos on the walls of 14-Campus.
“We tried to bring in every personal touch we could think of,” Tuzio said.
That afternoon, Rodgriguez walked down a makeshift aisle to a window overlooking Franklin Field, with nurses standing by attentively with chairs in case she needed a break. The couple’s 2-year-old daughter, Ella, stole the show as flower girl, before Rodriguez and Striddels were married by the bride’s childhood pastor, surrounded by loving friends and family—some of whom flew in for the event—and, of course, a crowd of nurses.
“There were so many nurses, it was amazing. It was so beautiful,” said Rodriguez’s mom, Damaris Pitre, who guessed she collected 200 photos from all the nurses who sent her pictures. “They went all out. It was very special.”
‘We do our best to do extraordinary things’
When members of a patient’s health care team come together to plan such celebrations for patients, “it shows how much they care about their patients as individuals and see them as people, beyond their diagnosis,” said Jessie Reich, PhD, RN, ANP-BC, the hospital’s director of Experience and Magnet Programs.
Besides creating special memories for the families, hospital weddings provide hope and cheer for the staff—a gift on units caring for gravely ill patients.
On Friday, Aug. 9, around 1 a.m., the hospital hosted its second wedding of the week—a quiet, intimate ceremony on the cardiac intensive care unit. A patient’s son wanted his father to see him get married in person, even if his dad couldn’t leave the hospital for the couple’s long-planned Jersey Shore wedding later that day.
“Dads are supposed to be at their sons’ weddings,” said the patient, Keith Maggs, of Wall Township, N.J. When first admitted to the hospital, he had thought he would make it to the wedding, but medical complications interfered.
Why the middle of the night? Andrew Maggs and his fiancée, Nicole, wanted the hospital ceremony to line up with the date on their marriage certificate. His father’s nursing teams were unruffled by the request—after all, day or night, caring staff are there for patients.
The staff set up two conference rooms for the bride and groom to get changed separately, as they would for a traditional wedding. Nurse Carmela Garcia-Alonzo, BSN, RN, helped the patient into a white button-down shirt and black blazer over his hospital gown. It was her first wedding since joining Penn Medicine in early 2022, but the nurse has learned that “at Penn, we do our best to do extraordinary things.”
The event took place in the lounge, where several nurses, with assistance from staff chaplain Isuannette McKinnon, had placed battery-operated tealights, arranged background music, and set up a table for refreshments. Assistant Nurse Manager Gonto Mack, BSN, RN, returned to the hospital hours after her shift to help, arranging lights on the floor in the shape of a heart—signifying both romance as well as the unit where the wedding took place—for the bride and groom to stand inside while reciting their vows before their parents and a handful of staff.
Liz Baronofsky, BSN, RNC-NIC, a nurse in the Intensive Care Nursery who has a photography business and was working at the hospital that night, came to capture the ceremony.
“For such a big hospital, everyone went out of their way for Keith and our family to let us share this major life event together. And they were excited like we were,” said Keith’s wife, Mary Maggs. “I honestly can’t say enough about every single clinician and member of staff at HUP. We’re truly so appreciative.”
Editor's note: This story was originally published Aug. 19, 2024. Alexis Rodriguez passed away Sept. 19, with her family at her bedside. Our condolences are with her family.