Mom Survives Heart Attack After Baby's Birth, Gets Married in Hospital Room

A North Carolina couple was already having quite an eventful time at the hospital where they welcomed their first baby several weeks earlier than anticipated when the mother, Brittany Butner, experienced a heart attack.

She was visiting her newborn, Faylynn Hope, at the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of the Novant Health Forsyth Medical Center when she started to feel a tightness in her chest and shooting pain in her arm. Doctors were able to save the 28-year-old mom via emergency surgery but she was warned that she was "really young" to experience the medical episode.

The new mom was still scheduled for a second surgery in a few days but then realized the uncertainty she faced. Doctors told her that her condition is critical and there's a possibility she might not make it through.

So, she and her partner, Clint Bunter, 29, decided to get married in her hospital room because they don't know how the next procedure, a cardiac catheterization, would turn out. The Bunters had a September wedding plan anyway but now, they have a more pressing reason to move it up, per People.

It was love at first sight

Workers at the hospital helped with the wedding planning and ordered the cake, bouquet and decorations. Despite their 5-day-old baby's fragile state, they were able to bring Faylynn's incubator to her mom's room where she "served" as the flower girl. Grayson, Brittany's 8-year-old son from a previous marriage, was also in the impromptu wedding.

The couple exchanged their vows on July 13. Two days later, Brittany was wheeled to the operating room again.

Their wedding comes six years after Clint first laid eyes on Brittany, who told Stars Reborn that it was love at first sight for him. However, he and Brittany were still attached to different partners and didn't have a relationship until they reconnected in 2020.

During the pandemic year, they both found themselves newly single. By the next year, Clint proposed to Brittany on Christmas Eve and set their wedding for September 2022.

The couple had another surprise when they found out that they were expecting their first child together. Brittany learned that she was due in August 2022.

However, Brittany's pregnancy was high-risk and she developed pre-eclampsia. So, when she had high blood pressure and blurry vision, her doctors decided it was time to do a C-section. Faylynn was born seven weeks premature on July 8.

Butner family goes home

Both mom and baby were confined to different wings at the hospital. Clint would visit his wife and child every day. Following nearly four weeks of confinement, the doctors gave Faylynn and Britney an all-clear.

According to WGN9, the mom still needs to return for cardiology check-ups and may have to undergo heart rehab. Doctors diagnosed her with a multivessel spontaneous coronary artery disease (SCAD), which happens to postpartum moms who don't generally have any history or risk factors of heart conditions but developed a tear in the blood vessel.

However, Brittany has something great to look forward to because she and Clint will push through with their actual wedding in September, celebrating their love and life with family members and friends.