Coronavirus: Doctors ‘get married’ in hospital labour unit after wedding is cancelled

‘They’re really my work family and we really try to take care of each other’

(Duke University Hospital)

An impromptu celebration was held in a hospital for two doctors whose wedding was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Medics at Duke University Hospital in North Carolina organised a celebration for Shelsun Tsai and Michael Sun after the pair had to call off their big day.

Ms Tsai, an obstetrician resident at the hospital, and Mr Sun, a resident in Duke’s psychiatry program, exchanged “vows” in the hospital’s labour unit on 11 April – the date they were supposed to get married.

The celebration was watched by colleagues at the hospital as well as friends and family who had dialled in via video using Zoom.

“They knew I’d postponed my wedding but people didn’t realize it was that day until I was there [at work] and I said it was supposed to be April 11,” Tsai told Good Morning America.

“It started out small, that they wanted to make me a wedding dress, then it was a veil, then flowers and then it became everyone chipping in and jumping onboard.”

“They literally started at 8 a.m. and in between patient care they’d get bits of stuff done and then had the ceremony at 3 p.m.,” Ms Tsai said of her colleagues.

Medics at the hospital set up a special room for Ms Tsai to get changed into her “wedding dress” before meeting her fiance.

A nurse from the labour and delivery unit the “officiated” at the ceremony before the couple exchanged “vows”.

The couple, who met while studying at university, have rescheduled their wedding for October.

“It was absolutely amazing,” Tsai said of the celebration.

“Every day I feel like we take care of our patients and we’re always so thoughtful and love what we do and to see that [my colleagues] also care so much about us and the things that mean so much to us, it was really touching.”

“They’re really my work family and we really try to take care of each other,” she said.