Two doctors working during the coronavirus pandemic marked what was supposed to be their wedding day with an impromptu ceremony at the hospital where they both work.
Dr. Shelun Tsai, an OBGYN resident at Duke University Hospital, and Dr. Michael Sun, a resident in Duke Psychiatry’s program, planned to get married on Saturday, April 11, in North Carolina.
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When the the couple, who got engaged in 2016, had to postpone their official wedding, their colleagues at Duke University Hospital stepped in to make sure the couple's would-be wedding day was still special.
"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.," she said of her colleagues.
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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
Before Tsai walked down the "aisle," her colleagues set up a special room for her to change into her paper wedding gown and then arranged a "first look" moment between her and Sun.
A nurse from the Labor and Delivery unit "officiated" the approximately 15-minute ceremony at Duke Birthing Center.
The ceremony was watched on Zoom by nearly a dozen of Tsai's and Sun's friends, family and actual wedding party.
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
At the end of the ceremony, Tsai and Sun rode off on a hospital transportation cart decorated with "Just Married" signs.
The couple, who met in college, has moved their official wedding to October.
"It was absolutely amazing," Tsai said of her commemorative 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.