As the coronavirus pandemic worsens all over the world, healthcare workers are spending more and more of their time at hospitals. On what was meant to be their wedding day, these two doctors turned their workplace into an impromptu wedding venue.
Dr. Shelun Tsai, an OBGYN resident at Duke University Hospital, and Dr. Michael Sun, a resident in Duke Psychiatry’s program, were scheduled to tie the knot on Saturday, April 11 in North Carolina.
The couple have been engaged since 2016 but had to postpone their wedding amid the coronavirus pandemic. However, their colleagues at Duke University Hospital made sure that what would have been their wedding day was still a special moment.
“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.”
Their coworkers set up a room where Sun and Tsai could have a special ‘first look’ moment. Tsai then walked down the aisle in a wedding gown her colleagues had fashioned out of paper.
A nurse ‘officiated’ the 15-minute ceremony, which was broadcast live on Zoom to the couple’s family and friends.
2 @dukesom residents had a @zoom_us wedding at @DukeHospital Birthing Center today! The ceremony commemorated what would have been their big day in NYC. Fam & friends virtually watched @dukeobgyn resident Shelun Tsai exchange vows w/ @DukePsychiatry resident Michael Sun 🎉 🎊 💕 pic.twitter.com/p8RKwBXBWA
— Duke OB/GYN (@dukeobgyn) April 11, 2020
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
Following the ceremony, Tsai and Sun rode off in style on a hospital transportation cart decorated with “Just Married” signs as their getaway car.
“It was absolutely amazing,” Tsai said of the 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.”
“They’re really my work family and we really try to take care of each other,” she said.
