SAYRE, BRADFORD COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — We think of hospitals as a place to provide medical and surgical treatment, but in the case of one local hospital, it provided something so much more to a patient with a grim diagnosis.
A female patient in the oncology unit was dealing with advanced cancer, so the hospital teamed up with the woman’s boyfriend to provide her one last magical day.
In her final days of fighting bladder cancer that spread throughout her body, 81-year-old Sharon Schneider wasn’t being wheeled to a surgical procedure at Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital.
Knowing time was not on their side, her boyfriend, Frankie Campos, wanted to marry her. A Guthrie staffer provided him encouragement.
“At that point he hadn’t asked her yet and so I said, well go in there and do it. And I gave them some time to be together, went back in and they’re both crying and he said, “She said yes!” said Megan Kyc, a social worker at Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital.
Hospital staff quickly came together to provide the couple a special ceremony to exchange their wedding vows.
With his bride too weak to stand, Campos sealed the exchange of vows with a kiss.
Just four days after her marriage, Schneider lost her health battle. Life may be finite, but it’s been said love never dies, and neither will the memory of this one last magical day the staff at Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital helped provide.
“I’m very passionate about helping others and I was honored to be a part of such a celebration,” said Kyc.
That social worker said the wedding day was a true demonstration of what it means as a caregiver to make a meaningful difference in a patient’s life.
