LAKE FOREST, IL — Efforts by staff at Lake Forest Hospital last week allowed a hospice patient and her family to mark a meaningful milestone in person.
Karen Hoehne was wheeled down from the intensive care unit in her hospital bed to a courtyard Saturday, where about a dozen people gathered to witness the first outdoor wedding in the history of the hospital building.
"Her smile that day was the biggest smile I've seen in so long from her," her daughter, Alyssa Sutherland, 31, of Wilmette, told Patch. "This year for her was just one thing after another with her health. She's always such a fighter and she just kept getting bad news, and so to see her smile again, she was just so happy. She perked up that day, she was like, 'I'm ready. This is the day. I'm so happy I'm here.' It literally was the best thing."
Sutherland, and her husband, Akeem, 33, got engaged in February and planned to hold a wedding in November. The coronavirus pandemic forced the ceremony to be postponed until May 2021. But a few months ago, they learned her mother's cancer was terminal and scheduled a small ceremony in the backyard of her parents' house in Libertyville, where she grew up.
But when Hoehne was rushed to the emergency room Tuesday and moved to the intensive care unit, it became clear she would not be healthy enough for the planned ceremony. When the medical staff at the ICU found out about the situation, they suggested looking into a possibility of holding a wedding at the hospital in a safe way, Sutherland and hospital officials said.
Jeremy Miselbrook, who manages chaplains at the hospital, said staff coordinated across departments, including risk management, infection prevention, nursing administration and more to ensure the ceremony could go ahead safely.
"Whenever we do something that stands out this much, that is this much out of the ordinary, we want to make sure we're doing everything [to maintain safety], because the safety of the patient is a priority and, of course, the safety of the staff and the other visitors is very important to us. And so I didn't want to over-promise anything," Miselbrook said. "Everyone gave their input and we implemented all of those processes and were extremely pleased with the result."
Miselbrook said there were about four staff members at the courtyard, and hospital staff were prepared with an alternative indoor location in case of bad weather. Fortunately for Hoehne and her family, forecasted rain never arrived.
Sutherland's father was able to walk her down the aisle to the song, "A Thousand Years," by Christina Perry, which includes the lyrics, "I have died everyday, waiting for you/Darling, don't be afraid, I have loved you for a thousand years/I'll love you for a thousand more."
The hospital chaplain, who held an umbrella over Hoehne's hospital bed to shade her during the roughly 15-minute ceremony, said restrictions on visitors to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission has led staff to form closer relationships with patients.
"We became their visitors as well as their caretakers, and that's a big difference that I saw from previously, when you'd occasionally have a case where someone's loved ones weren't local, and so they would need to have a little bit more social attention than just addressing the clinical needs," he said. "This was exacerbated by the pandemic."
Sutherland said she would forever remain grateful to hospital staff for allowing her mother, who died Sunday at the age of 63, to see her get married.
"I always pictured my mom at my wedding so it was already hard enough having to get that news in April and realizing we were going to lose her, and we were literally four days away to at least having that dream come true of having her there. And then a few days prior, you're finding out: 'No, that dream's not going to happen.' That they cared so much to make our dream come true, and her dream come true of seeing it, I got goosebumps, I probably cried so many times out of joy," she said.
"Knowing that they made her last dream come true is unbelievable."
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Wedding At Lake Forest Hospital Made Her Last Dream Come True - Lake Forest, IL Patch
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