Dream wedding comes out of nightmare scenario

First came a true miracle of life. Then, a miraculous marriage.

Midelson and Jatiana Silencieux were married March 25 at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge.

The ceremony, conducted by hospital Chaplain Andy Travis in a break room down the hall from Jatiana’s room in the Intensive Care Unit, was a peak event in a tumultuous month of March for the Waukegan couple.

The wedding came five days after a harrowing sequence of events before the birth, at 9:27 a.m. March 20, of the couple’s first child, Grayson Noah Silencieux, conceived by in vitro fertilization.

The couple had hoped for a February wedding date at the Skokie courthouse, but were disappointed to find the only available date was March 22.

Life — and near death — intervened.

At about 1:30 a.m. March 17, hours after attending her baby shower, Jatiana woke up with severe chest pains.

Thirty-four weeks pregnant at that point, she was rushed to Advocate Lutheran General where she was diagnosed as having had a heart attack. She was prescribed 14 days of hospital bed rest to gain strength for her delivery.

On March 20, though, she awoke to the same chest pains. Doctors found her lungs filling with fluid and also high blood pressure both stemming from preeclampsia, a serious pregnancy condition.

Jatiana was taken for an emergency cesarean section to deliver her baby six weeks premature.

“Both my wife and my son’s life were at stake. I didn’t know what to expect,” said Midelson Silencieux, who works for JP Morgan Chase in Skokie. “The doctors had to give us the good news and the bad news. There was risk.”

Mother and child pulled through the successful procedure. Grayson remains in neonatal intensive care, but Jatiana said he is breathing on his own and takes bottle feedings as he is able.

“He’s doing great,” she said.

As Jatiana recuperated in the ICU, she shared the couple’s wedding plans with her numerous Advocate Lutheran General and Advocate Children’s Hospital nurses and physicians. Midelson even asked if the couple could “sneak away” to get married, as they already had the license, the rings and the attire.

“We were told, ‘No, that’s not possible,’” he said.

Hospital staff told the couple they could marry them. Behind the scenes, though, they created a more memorable event than they let on.

On March 25, following a fresh haircut and suit for Midelson and makeup, stylish shoes, wedding gown and bouquet for Jatiana, the couple strolled down the aisle or “the ICU room” and turned a corner into the break room.

Inside the decorated room were rows of chairs filled with the doctors, nurses and team members who had attended to the Silencieuxs and their newborn. Sparkling juice chilled on ice by the wedding cake.

Near Chaplain Travis was a surprise guest, Grayson, in an incubator, dressed in a white “onesie” and a white bow tie.

“I cried my eyes out,” Jatiana said.

A day after exchanging their vows, Jatiana was discharged. While Grayson remains in neonatal care, the happily married couple have since “honeymooned” at the hospital’s Ronald McDonald House to be with their son.

Midelson was amazed at the care the hospital team put into their work and by the appearance that “all of them loved their jobs.”

Jatiana said her hospital wedding eclipsed the simple ceremony the couple had intended.

“I can’t even come up with the words I want to say, other than being overjoyed, blessed and grateful,” she said. “Not only did they save mine and Grayson’s life, but they made our wedding celebration even more than we could imagine.”