May 20, 2005

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Palo Alto Online

Wedding bells ring at Stanford Hospital

by Sue Dremann

On Monday, the corridors of Stanford Hospital became a church aisle fit for a wedding.

Michael Dedini, a Stanford patient in critical care, was wheeled down the makeshift aisle in a hospital bed to witness his daughter's wedding.

Beverly, 20, and her fiancé James Pullin, 21, planned to wed June 18 in an outdoor ceremony at Bear Creek High School in Stockton. Concerned that her father, who has a serious infection, might not make the event, the couple decided to marry at the hospital.

Wearing a strapless white gown with a 4-foot train, Beverly walked down the hallway as a harpist played in the atrium's Bing flower garden and teary-eyed family and Stanford medical staff looked on. The groom held hands with his bride-to-be under the boughs of redwood trees. A trio of star tattoos peaked out from her shoulder.

"Beverly was afraid her dress wouldn't fit in his hospital room. But her mother, Joyce, said 'We'll find a way,'" Weinacker said.

When Dedini, 46, received a heart-lung transplant nearly 11 years ago at Stanford, Beverly was just 8. Heart-lung transplant patients have a 50 percent survival rate after five years, but Dedini has thus far survived nearly 11 years.

He was doing well until a couple of years ago, when Dedini developed a serious body infection from a spider bite that landed -him in intensive care for 100 days, family members said. He collapsed again a week ago from complications of the infection, and has remained in the hospital in critical condition.

As the couple took their vows, Michael Dedini quietly looked on. Afterward, he removed his oxygen mask and kissed the bride. He shook his new son-in-law's hand.

"I think it's wonderful. He had a rough year last year. His family has been so supportive. He was so happy, he just glowed," Lisa Levin, Stanford cardiothoractic transplant coordinator, said.

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