Pennsylvania Hospital Stories of Healing, Health, and Hope

Pennsylvania Hospital Stories of Healing, Health, and Hope: Doylestown Hospital

There are sad endings for some who are patients in a hospital’s intensive care unit and there are happy endings. Two such happy endings involve patients whose weddings were held at Doylestown Hospital.

In the first story, the groom was very ill and near death. He had lived with his female partner for 30 years and wanted to marry her before he died. There’s no physician order and no protocol needed to be followed for a wedding. The hospital intensive care staff worked hard to honor the patient’s wishes and began to transform the hospital unit for the event. Flowers were borrowed from other patients and picked from the flowering trees on campus to fill his room. The IVs were temporarily disconnected and the patient was dressed in a nice shirt for the ceremony.

In the second story, a hospitalized grandmother wanted to see her granddaughter married, but was unable to leave the hospital. On a quiet Saturday evening, staff converted the Same Day Surgery waiting room into a chapel, borrowing and cutting flowers to prepare for the celebration. Furniture was rearranged into a chapel setting, a minister was present, and Grandma, dressed in her finest, was wheeled in for the ceremony. All in attendance—family and staff—enjoyed the proceedings and finished with a sparkling cider toast to the newlyweds.

This is just one of the many examples of Pennsylvania’s hospitals providing healing, health, and hope every day to millions of Pennsylvanians.