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Hospital throws impromptu wedding for patient awaiting heart transplant: ‘Life’s too short’

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Hospital throws wedding for heart-transplant patient
WATCH: Liam Hanrahan and Sarah Cousins got married at the Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, England on Feb. 27 – Mar 4, 2020

Love waits for no one — not even those waiting for heart transplants.

While most don’t imagine their wedding taking place in a hospital, one England couple couldn’t imagine getting married anywhere else.

Liam Hanrahan, 31, has been waiting for a heart transplant at Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge since mid-January, the hospital said in a news release.

A biventricular assist device is helping support his failing heart, keeping blood flowing around his body. As such, he’s unable to leave the building without risking his life.

Instead of waiting an unknown amount of time to marry his fiancée, Sarah Cousins, the hospital organized a wedding ceremony for them on Feb. 27.

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They said “I do” in the same hospital room they got engaged in.

The hospital shared a heartwarming video of Cousins, 32, walking down the “aisle” and into Hanrahan’s hospital room with one of her children by her side.

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Cousins’ two children — Leon, 10, and six-year-old Lyle — were there to make their day even more special.

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“We got engaged here, too, on Feb. 1, so it’s all happened very quickly,” Cousins said in the statement.

“Liam’s condition just made us think ‘life is too short, let’s just do it.'”

The nurses and critical care workers involved in the making of the couple’s big day will likely be getting an invitation to their next ceremony.

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“The nurses on critical care have been amazing,” Cousins said. “If we were to get married elsewhere in the future we would probably invite them anyway, so it made sense to just go ahead with it.”

The hospital staff organized flowers, a wedding cake, cupcakes, balloons and food.

The civil ceremony was followed by a blessing in the hospital’s chapel, the hospital added, as conducted by chaplain Rev. Anthony Gill.

The service was attended by families of the bride and groom, staff and even other patients and their relatives.

meaghan.wray@globalnews.ca

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