MEDINA, Ohio — For Tim Davis and Christine Dash, the journey to matrimony started and ended at Cleveland Clinic Medina Hospital.
Dash, a nursing assistant at the hospital, met Davis while caring for his sick father in 2018. Less than a week later, the two went out on their first date. They agreed to feeling an instant connection.
"He started talking when I walked in the room and we just kind of hit it off," Dash said.
In September of last year, Davis began dealing with his own health challenges.
After returning from a vacation to the Great Smoky Mountains, he experienced severe back pain.
"He loaded up his truck to leave for work and then he came back in to say goodbye and he collapsed. He was conscious and breathing, but he was in a lot of pain, struggling to breathe," Dash said.
Doctors discovered Davis had kidney cancer that had spread to his lungs, along with bilateral pulmonary embolism in his lungs.
Immunotherapy appears to be working. Davis said the cancer is no longer detected in his lungs. Eventually, he will need to have surgery to have the cancerous kidney removed.
During the health battle, the couple made the decision to get married and set a date— Jan. 23 at the Medina County Courthouse.
However, a CAT scan on Jan. 22 aggravated his kidneys and he ended up in the emergency room at Medina Hospital on the same day as the planned wedding.
"I told Erin, my nurse, I said, 'I think Chris is probably going to be upset with me today because she's probably thinking I'm trying to dodge getting married by coming to the ER today and that was my way to get out of it.'"
That nurse, Erin Kaminski, had a thought: Why not go through with the wedding inside the emergency room?
She felt bad for her co-worker and Davis.
"I wanted them to have their day, and so I just figured if it's possible that we can make it happen for them while they're here— if they wanted to— it's up to them," Kaminski said.
Others jumped in, too, like nurse Jody Thomas, who made calls to rally staff members with specialties to help with the blessed event.
"As a nurse, you just do things to help people. Tim, you could look at him; he wanted to get married. Christine is one of our own, and so, it's all about love," Thomas said.
A third nurse, Tim Phillips, who is also an ordained pastor, performed the ceremony. While he has married several people, officiating a wedding in an ER was a first.
"We've made jokes about me being a pastor in the past, and so I thought they were just messing with me, and then they told me, 'No, we're really planning to have a wedding this morning.' I was excited and I'm glad that I could do it for them," Phillips said.
Michelle Shaw, a unit clerk at the hospital, came in on her day off to be the wedding photographer, capturing kisses, along with shots of donated items, including flowers, a cake, sparking juice, a veil for Dash and a string of cans connected to Davis's hospital bed.
"It just means so much to be able to capture that special memory that they'll have forever, and how amazing is that?" Shaw said.
For the newlyweds, the entire experience was indeed amazing.
"It was very exciting. It was surprising and they did a fantastic job," Dash said.
"It was amazing how everybody came together and can coordinate something that just seemed like it was so professional," Davis added.
Dash is wearing a wedding band, and she put a plastic heart ring on her husband's finger when a News 5 crew visited them at the hospital.
The actual wedding rings will come, and so will the honeymoon—possibly a cruise—as Tim continues to receive treatment and recovers.
For now, they're just grateful for the chance to say their "I Do's" and for all the people who made that happen.
"It was happy. I got to marry a wonderful woman and now we're together as long as our ride lasts," Davis said.
