NASSAU, Bahamas -- Erin Metz and her fiancée Tom Sardina dreamed of having a destination wedding, and a cruise to The Bahamas with 60 of their closest friends and family onboard seemed ideal. Her father, Gordon Metz dreamed of watching his daughter say 'I do'.  Both their dreams came true last month when nurses, physicians and staff at Doctors Hospital went well beyond the call of duty.

The father of the bride had been diagnosed with an aggressive pancreatic cancer in July, 2012, but he had been doing well with his treatment and there was nothing to suggest he should not make the journey to his daughter's Bahamas wedding.  The night before the wedding, however, as the cruise ship was making its way into Nassau, Mr Metz suffered what turned out to be a massive stroke.

Early the morning on what was to be her carefully planned wedding on the western end of the island, Erin instead found herself, along with her mother, sister and fiancée, keeping vigil at Doctors Hospital.  Despite her mother's insistence that they go ahead with the wedding, Erin didn't feel right getting married without her parents there, and so she and her fiancée decided to cancel it.

"At that point I really wasn't concerned with the wedding. I was upset by it obviously, but that was really secondary to what was going on with my father," she recalls, "I was conflicted because my mother wanted us to go ahead with our scheduled morning wedding, but I didn't want to get married without my parents there."

That was until Dr Duane Sands asked her if she still wanted to get married that day and introduced her to Doctors Hospital Patient Relations Coordinator Tabitha Butler. "I'll never forget what he said to us. He said, 'This is Tabitha; she works in patient relations, but today, she'll be your wedding coordinator,'" Erin smiles.

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