For many, big life events have been put on hold due to the COVID-19 — high school and college graduations, family reunions and weddings. However, two doctors working amid the coronavirus pandemic didn’t let it stop them from holding an impromptu wedding at Duke University Hospital, where they both work.
Dr. Shelun Tsai, an OBGYN resident at Duke University Hospital and Dr. Michael Sun, a resident in Duke Psychiatry’s had originally planned to get married on Saturday, April 11 in North Carolina. When they postponed their ceremony in light of the pandemic, their coworkers decided to create a ceremony of their own on the would-be wedding day.
“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.”
Not wasting any time, Tsai’s colleagues worked from on putting together the ceremony between patient care, starting from 8 am the day of to the 3 pm ceremony.
When your co-resident’s wedding has been thrown off by COVID-19, you don your best PPE for a hospital ceremony @dukeobgyn pic.twitter.com/t6jAvhSonZ
— Luke Gatta, MD (@gattago) April 11, 2020
The ceremony itself was quite impressive. Tsai donned a special paper wedding gown and even had a “first look” moment between her and Sun. A nurse from the Labor and Delivery unit “officiated” the 15-minute ceremony at Duke Birthing Center. And it wasn’t just colleagues in attendance, the ceremony was broadcast to the couple’s friends, family and wedding party through Zoom.
While they couldn’t leave the hospital for a traditional honeymoon, they were able to ride off on a hospital transportation cart, perfectly decorated with “Just Married” signs.
“It was absolutely amazing,” Tsai said of her ceremony. “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.”
