Responders, ER Staff Save Oregon Wedding

Wedding plans had been underway for nearly a year. Guests had flown to Portland from California, Texas and Florida. A sit-down dinner for 180 had been paid for in advance. All that remained was taking a simple photograph at the church.

And then...

Some wedding disaster stories are better than others. This one, which took place a week ago, has a bit of everything: blood, police, firefighters, paramedics as well as a team of emergency room doctors and nurses who ...

Well, suffice to say the song "Get Me to the Church on Time" has new meaning for the McGuire family of Northwest Portland.

It all began about 2:30 p.m. last Saturday when the wedding party gathered in a Washington County hotel to get dressed and then pose for formal pictures. Eventually, Michael McGuire, the groom, his groomsmen and his father, Dave McGuire, jumped in the limo for a short ride to a Beaverton church, where the wedding was set for 5 p.m.

After dropping the group off, the limo driver returned to the hotel to pick up the bride and her bridesmaids.

A photographer was scouting a location in the church for a photo and Michael McGuire, 33, surveyed the area while waiting for instructions. As a teen, he'd had three epileptic seizures. But he took medication and had been fine for decades.

He'd lost some weight, though, and the medication made him tired. In late May, he quit taking it but planned to make an appointment with his doctor to adjust the dosage. With the wedding plans, he never followed through.

And now, as he walked through the church, he had a seizure.

"I instantly knew what it was," his father said. "He went down stiff and hard, and he hit the back of his head on a table."

The elder McGuire rushed to his son's side and cradled him in his arms until the seizure passed. Michael McGuire was bleeding from a severe cut.

"He didn't know where he was," his father said. "Someone called 9-1-1, and the police and ambulance came roaring up."

Paramedics, worried that the groom could have a skull fracture, said they planned to take him to Providence St. Vincent Medical Center's emergency room for tests and to have stitches to stop the bleeding. His father knew what that meant.

"I once had a blood clot go through my heart and into my lung," he said. "It was two hours before anyone saw me. That was a big deal. I knew there was no way he could go to the emergency room and be back in time for the wedding."

He headed outside to warn his son's bride, Lilly, what had happened.

"I told her he was OK, but was going to the hospital," Dave McGuire said. "I had blood all over my hands. She sat on the asphalt parking lot in her wedding dress and started crying."

As the paramedics loaded his son into the ambulance, McGuire asked if they could call ahead to the emergency room to tell them about the wedding.

"He told me there was nothing he could do," McGuire said. "But he took a look at me in my tux and boutonniere. He told me to show up in the ER with all that on and I might be about to touch someone's heart strings."

On the way to the hospital in his own car, McGuire wondered if he should delay the wedding.

"What if there was no wedding?" he said. "I'd paid for all those dinners. Believe me, it wasn't cheap. Should I have a dinner and have the ceremony at another time? What do I do about all the out-of-town guests?

At the hospital, he told the emergency room staff what was at stake.

"They jumped into action," he said. "I can't believe how wonderful they were to us. They did a scan, cleaned the wound, stitched it with a special material so it wouldn't show in pictures and gave him a fast-acting anti-seizure medication. One of the nurses even washed the blood off my son's tuxedo shirt so he looked perfect."

By 4:30 p.m., McGuire and his son were headed back to the church.

"I called the bridal party on the way," he said. "They were back at the hotel and everyone had changed out of their formal wear and into casual clothes. I told them the wedding was on and meet us at the church."

The ceremony went off without a hitch.

I do.

You may kiss the bride.

Love all around.

At the party that night, the father of the groom finally took stock of what had happened.

"I'm not a big drinker," Dave McGuire said. "But I had four glasses of wine."

-- Tom Hallman Jr.

Copyright 2012 - The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.