After the groom kissed his bride, after the flashes of a dozen cameras, after the cake was cut, three Providence Holy Cross ICU nurses shared a silent “high-five” outside Room 2103. The radiant couple and 20 or so teary-eyed family members were rejoicing in bride Susan Hinojosa-Lujan’s room, unaware of the heartfelt joy among the nurses who witnessed the Tuesday evening wedding. Just five days after their patient’s family told them Susan wanted to marry long-time love Vince Lujan, the Pavilion A team brought the Providence Mission to life. They revealed God’s love to this most vulnerable family, helping create a wedding to remember for a couple facing a rough road. Susan was suffering liver failure and had spent the last two weeks in ICU. These nurses provided so much more than clinical skills to help heal this family. They felt empowered by this spirit that lives in Holy Cross to reach out well beyond their training, knowing they were free to spend a few working hours plucking flowers from the hospital gardens, crafting congratulatory signs and tying ribbon bows about her room and on her wheelchair to briefly mask the sterile hospital equipment. “You’ve got the greatest nurses in the world,” said Richard Marquez, Susan’s brother. “They have given my sister and all of us so much love and compassion. These are not their patients, they’re their family. And it’s more than the nurses – the kitchen made this cake, security’s been great, when the custodians come in, they’re the kindest people.”
EXEMPLARY PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
Nurses Honor Patient Wish with Wedding in the ICU
The next morning, a still-smiling Susan was transferred to a room on the third floor where the Just Married sign penned on pink construction paper was affixed at the foot of her bed. Behind the scenes, the wheels continued turning to get Susan on UCLA’s liver transplant list. “This isn’t about her illness tonight,” Richard said as the family enjoyed the chocolate wedding cake. “This is about life, it’s about hope.”
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