Favorite Mayo Clinic Stories of 2017: A Wedding in the Hospital #ThrowbackThursday

By Alyssa Frank • February 15, 2018

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Each year, Mayo Clinic's In the Loop blog looks back and shares some favorite stories of the year gone by. Here is the second of 17 stories from 2017. Be sure to check back each week for the next story.

"Do You Think That Could Happen–A Wedding in the Hospital?"
Amy Cierzan-Shaw was determined to see her daughter get married, despite a devastating cancer diagnosis months before the wedding. When her care team realized time was not on Amy's side, the group brought the wedding to her.

Alison Shaw and her mother Amy Cierzan-Shaw held hands and locked eyes as they walked toward Alison's fiancé and her future. It was a day they had dreamed of and planned for. They'd imagined the white dress and the flowers, the music, and the vows.

What Alison and Amy hadn't imagined were the oxygen tanks and wheelchair, or the doctors, nurses, and respiratory therapists who accompanied them on that walk. They hadn't imagined Amy being diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer 11 months before Alison was scheduled to be married.

After that diagnosis, Amy made it clear that she intended to watch Alison walk down the aisle. When her care team asked Amy about her goals, "My first response was that I be there to see my daughter get married," she recently told us.

And one Sunday afternoon, in a sunny atrium close to her hospital room, staff at Mayo Clinic made sure that she did.

Alyssa Frank

Alyssa Frank is a Marketing Segment Manager at Mayo Clinic Laboratories. She leads marketing strategies for product management and specialty testing. Alyssa has worked at Mayo Clinic since 2015.