After a bride had an unexpected seizure on her wedding day, Lankenau nurses threw a wedding in the ER
Getting married in an ER trauma bay after an unexpected seizure on her wedding day was "wonderful," said Melissa Kellogg.
Melissa Kellogg and David Graham had just finished taking photos with their wedding party, a half hour before the Downingtown couple’s ceremony was scheduled to start last Saturday.
Kellogg headed back to the bridal suite at their Radnor wedding venue to prepare for her walk down the aisle, while Graham greeted a few early-arriving guests.
Then Kellogg collapsed.
“I just started convulsing,” she said. “I went down, hard.”
Nearby members of the wedding party jumped into action. Kellogg’s sister, who has EMT training, helped roll her onto her side and directed others to call 911. Graham rushed to the bride’s side with his best man, a nurse.
Kellogg had regained consciousness by the time an ambulance arrived and was rushed to Lankenau Medical Center in nearby Wynnewood.
A CT scan came back clear. Kellogg will undergo a few more precautionary tests, but doctors concluded she had an isolated seizure — possibly brought on by wedding-day stress.
“It was a one-off seizure event from stress, anxiety, dehydration, not sleeping, not eating. It was a perfect storm,” Kellogg said. “It was really scary.”
Soon, Kellogg was stabilized in the Lankenau ER’s trauma bay — albeit with a nasty bruise from her fall. Kellogg’s mother and sister had arrived alongside Graham’s best man.
Someone cracked a joke: Why not get married in the ER?
“The nurses got really excited about that,” Graham said, laughing. “And we weren’t going to leave the day without getting married.”
As it turns out, Lankenau’s ER nurses are accustomed to throwing parties — usually for colleagues celebrating a wedding or a new baby. They keep decorations in a supply closet just in case.
“This time, it came in handy,” said Hillary Hughes, a registered nurse and clinical care coordinator in the ER. They decorated Kellogg’s trauma bay with streamers and balloons. Graham’s brother, the couple’s officiant, was summoned to the ER.
Kellogg and Graham, both 36, met on Tinder in 2019. They’d been engaged since 2024. After a first date with a sushi dinner and axe-throwing, “we fell for each other pretty quickly,” Graham said.
Kellogg, who is studying for a master’s degree in accounting, loved Graham’s confidence. Graham, a former mechanical engineer now pursuing certification as a PGA golf instructor, was drawn to Kellogg’s independent spirit.
They spent more than a year planning their wedding at Pomme in Radnor, where they had planned to welcome 82 friends and family members from as far away as Ireland.
Instead, they ended up getting married in an ER bay with an audience of a few close family members and a squad of nurses.
One nurse helped Kellogg salvage her wedding updo while another played the bride’s entrance music on her phone. They cheered when the couple read their vows.
“It was wonderful,” Kellogg said.
“I went from having one of the scariest moments of my life to having the happiest moment of my life — getting married. Even if it was in the hospital,” Graham added.
In the chaos of the ER, Lankenau nurses said they don’t often get the chance to bond with patients — let alone help them organize a wedding.
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“There’s so many ups and downs in the course of your day. When we saw something positive like this, we want to celebrate it and celebrate them,” said registered nurse Emily Eddowes.
Graham and Kellogg now have advice for other soon-to-be married couples: “Eat on your wedding day,” Graham said. “Drink water,” Kellogg chimed in.
And for those whose days don’t transpire exactly the way they hoped?
“You do all this planning to have one special day. But just because it doesn’t go the way you planned doesn’t mean it isn’t going to be the happiest day of your life,” Graham said. “Let whatever happens come. Just be happy with your partner.”
