Pregnant woman was placed on ventilator 2 weeks before her wedding — then nurses offered her the greatest gift

Essential care workers go way beyond their duties sometimes. Similarly, nurses at Essentia Health-St. Mary's Medical Center (@essentiahealth) did the same for a 23-year-old pregnant Ariana Sleen, who had to be hospitalized two weeks before her wedding. She had been taken to the hospital due to severe back pain, which later turned out to be pneumonia. Also, she went into septic shock, but her health improved as her wedding day drew closer. So the nurses did something unexpected. They got together and planned a wedding at the hospital.

"Congratulations to Ariana and Chandler Sleen, who recently celebrated their wedding, albeit unexpectedly, at Essentia Health-St. Mary's Medical Center!" the caption read. Ariana had to be taken to an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and was diagnosed with pneumonia and soon went into septic shock. She even had to be put on a ventilator due to her condition. She suffered "sepsis with septic shock, a severe urinary tract infection, a kidney infection with abscesses and a serious lung infection," per the couple's GoFundMe campaign. The family shared that the situation was scary for the groom, Chandler Sleen, and their family. "She had very bad pneumonia, went into septic shock and that’s when they had to put the tube in," Chandler said, per Northern News Now.

The couple was also about to welcome their son, Sebastian, making the situation harder. "I was definitely very terrified. I mean, these are the two most important people in my life right here and they were both struggling," Chandler continued. However, Ariana's health improved a day before the wedding, and she could be taken off the ventilator, per Essentia Health. So, the nurses decided to come together and plan a wedding for the bride at the hospital. "All the nurses and everybody came together and put us in what's known as the 'Taylor Swift Suite,' and we got married," Ariana recounted.

Nurses Madeline Vogel, Olivia Schmidt and Deanna Anderson were Ariana's care team and decided to organize a special last-minute wedding for her in the suite. "I just tried to clean up the room a little, make room for a wedding cake and food," Anderson revealed. "These ladies have been nothing but ... the kindest, sweetest people. They'll get an invite to the reception and everything, for sure," Ariana added. The nurses helped the bride dress up in a wedding gown, and they had a ceremony in the suite, per the outlet. "This might top the list for the happiest things I've seen at work," Vogel expressed. She remarked that they had to get "creative" to make the celebration possible.

The couple was extremely grateful for what the nurses did for them throughout their time of difficulty. They also planned on returning to the center for the birth of their son in June. "To come back here after every set of kids we have and be like, 'We get to come back to the same spot that we got married,' that somehow, that was awesome," Ariana pointed out. The baby is due to be born on June 29.