Nurses who helped make the wedding in the MICU so special included (from left) Samantha Lenherr, Allie Amendolia, Katie Nawa, Mary Jordan-Luft, and Makeda Constable.
Nicole Scully and Rick Bradley hoped to get married on January 19, 2018 – the invitations had already gone out. But the breast cancer that Nicole had been battling since her diagnosis in 2014 – undergoing round after round of chemotherapy and other treatments – would not release her from its grip. So when she was brought to HUP’s medical intensive care unit on Donner 3 on Christmas night with an infection and put on several life support systems, both the staff and her family knew it was unlikely she would make it to her wedding date.
But, Renee, Nicole’s mother, asked, could the wedding come to her, in the unit? “Absolutely,” said Alexandria (Allie) Amendolia, BSN, Nicole’s nurse. And thus began the nursing staff’s intense planning for the December 30 wedding.
Amendolia found a garter with a blue gem for Nicole’s “something blue” and also a bridal headband with a small veil while Mary Jordan-Luft, MSN, reached out to her sister-in-law – a florist – to get bouquets and boutonnieres donated. Another nurse printed out photos of Nicole and Rick and their combined family (two sons and a daughter) and framed them. A family friend donated a wedding cake.
“We’ve had MICU weddings before but we took this to a whole new level,” said Jordan-Luft.
Kaitlyn Nawa, BSN, bought an 8-foot arch and decorated that and the room itself with flowers. Samantha Lenherr, BSN, volunteered to do Nicole’s makeup on Saturday morning and even a car accident on the way in didn’t stop her. “Her boyfriend picked her up and drove her to the hospital,” said Jordan-Luft.
“Sam transformed Nicole,” Amendolia added. “She looked beautiful.”
As the wedding day approached and plans fell into place, Nicole had recovered enough to get off mechanical ventilation and some meds but Amendolia remained worried about her patient’s condition. But when Saturday morning dawned, everything looked good to move ahead.
“Nicole was very interactive at the wedding, and visibly delighted that this day had come,” said Scott Halpern, MD, of Pulmonary, Allergy & Critical Care.
As more than 50 of Nicole and Rick’s friends and family members – and the MICU staff – watched and Beatles songs played, the bridal party walked “down the aisle” into the room. Rick entered to “Something in the Way She Moves,” which would have been their first dance at the wedding. Denise Statham of Pastoral Care came in to HUP that day to perform the ceremony.
“I didn’t want to miss a chance to bring a joyful moment in the midst of painful situations,” Statham said. “It was a humbling experience for me, witnessing the power of the love in that room.”
Nicole with her husband Rick and her son Dylan.
The excitement and good feelings surrounding the preparation and the wedding itself spread beyond those involved. “All day people were so grateful and thankful. They told me how blessed they felt to have that moment, that bit of joy,” Amendolia said, adding that the wife of a patient in the next room told her “it’s so nice to see this…so positive.”
“It was a Herculean effort, particularly by the nurses, to make this such a special event,” Halpern added.
Nicole went to home hospice care the day after her wedding and on Monday, New Year’s Day evening, she passed away, surrounded by all who loved her. Before leaving the MICU, her family left a note on the white message board in Nicole’s room: “We cannot thank you enough from the bottom of our hearts… We have never seen hearts so big filled with compassion and love. You gave us many blessings this week.”
The story of their magical wedding resonated far beyond HUP’s walls – a slideshow of their special day on Penn Medicine’s Facebook page topped 4,600 “likes” over New Year’s, making it the most popular post in the page’s history.