This Thanksgiving, a pair of newlyweds will have an abundance of gratitude. A successful open heart surgery saved one of their lives. Because the procedure was so risky, Northwestern Medicine nurses acted fast to put a wedding together. NBC Chicago’s Kate Chappell reports.
One day before undergoing a risky surgery that left the future unknown, Annesley Clark said "I do" in an unconventional venue -- a hospital waiting room.
It wasn't the venue Clark had been preparing to wed in for the last year, but it made for an incredible moment in one of the most difficult times of their life.
Clark, 33, who lives with an extremely rare condition called Magic Syndrome, was diagnosed in October with a life-threatening blood infection and a mass growing on their heart. Open heart surgery was necessary -- and fast.
"They said that I needed the open heart surgery to get the clot out or I wouldn’t make it," said Clark.
The medical crisis happened just three weeks before their wedding, which the couple had been planning for nearly a year.
But the couple knew they wanted to make if official while they had the chance.
"We had just under 24 hours to switch the wedding from a year of planning for Nov. 2, to 24 hours of planning for Oct. 9," Clark said.
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Nurses at Northwestern Medicine got to work, transforming the waiting room into a wedding venue, complete with flowers, balloons and cake.
"When we told them we were going to get married, everybody knew how serious it was. Everybody knew either way my odds weren't great, and they just kicked into high gear," Clark said.
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The couple's friends officiated the ceremony, and they were surrounded by family, friends and nurses as they took their vows.
"They kept my spirit going and helped me and Christine have this day where we would have spent those 24 hours prior to surgery panicking and worrying," Clark said.
Clark underwent open heart surgery on Oct. 10, and the mass was successfully removed.
"Everything went very smoothly just like we had hoped," said cardiac surgeon Dr. Benjamin Bryner. "When there’s a large mass inside the heart, the things we’re concerned about are trying to get the mass out in a minimally invasive way if we can, but sometimes that’s not safe."
After a few weeks recovering in the hospital, Clark is now home, enjoying married life with a healing heart.
"It’s exciting to be alive," Clark said with a smile.
The pair is looking forward to spending their first Thanksgiving as a married couple with their family in the suburbs.
"Thanksgiving is going to be the most joyous we’ve had in a long time," said Clark. "We know that my diagnosis is life limiting, and we don’t have a super long prognosis, but it went from possibly a week to now several years because of Northwestern and what they were able to do for me."
