5 days after open-heart surgery, woman weds Car crash on I-95 nearly killed bride-to-be

BANGOR – Neither a nasty car crash nor open-heart surgery would keep a determined Heather Miller from marriage Saturday.

Just five days after having a torn atrium surgically repaired, the 28-year-old from Milwaukee held her father’s arm and walked the 100 feet from the Eastern Maine Medical Center building to an altar placed on the Intensive Care Unit patio above the Penobscot River.

At the altar Miller’s father, the Methodist Rev. Richard Miller who performed the ceremony, smiled at his daughter and soon-to-be son-in- law, Chris Johnstone.

“We all know it’s a miracle that she’s here to celebrate,” he said. After brief discussion of the accident, he added “We’re not going to talk about it anymore [today], we’re going to celebrate.”

It was a celebration that almost didn’t occur.

Miller and her mother and sister were driving north on I-95 last Monday in anticipation of the Saturday wedding on Little Cranberry Island. Although neither the groom’s family nor the bride’s family is from Maine, they had vacationed in the area and thought it a beautiful location for a wedding, a hospital spokeswoman said. About 80 guests were expected.

As they neared the Broadway exit they slowed for construction work under way just south of the Bangor Mall, according to a police report. Then in a terrifying instant the Millers were struck from the rear by a tractor-trailer. Initial reports suggested Heather had been thrown from the car, but a hospital spokeswoman said Saturday that she apparently had crawled from it after the crash.

With a severe chest injury, Heather was rushed to EMMC where Drs. Robert Clough and William Horner performed emergency open-heart surgery to repair a torn atrium.

At the same time, her sister Mary, 25, was receiving treatment for a broken shoulder and her mother, Carol, 56, also was getting treatment. Mary and Carol Miller were listed in serious condition immediately after the accident while Heather was in critical condition. Inpatient recovery from surgeries such as Heather’s typically takes seven to 10 days, a hospital spokeswoman said.

In her hospital bed Wednesday, however, Heather told her family that she wanted to go ahead with the wedding, said Brenda Cartwright who organized both the original wedding plan and then the short-notice rearranged event at EMMC.

“I said to myself this can’t happen. She’s not well enough,” said Cartwright, who owns The Organizer, an Ellsworth-based planning company.

But Heather Miller was aware that if the wedding were canceled friends and family members would not get refunds for their travel arrangements, Cartwright said. With the groom’s family from Rochester, N.Y., both families were coming from a considerable distance, a hospital spokeswoman said.

“The challenge we faced was, number one, getting Heather well,” Cartwright said.

The arrangements were changed and the Rev. Miller, with three family members in the hospital, worked tirelessly to comply with his daughter’s wish, she said. Several Maine businesses assisted in their own ways. Islesford Dock Restaurant on Cranberry Island said there would be no charge even though the whole restaurant had been reserved. A hotel for the honeymoon in Nova Scotia also agreed to drop its charges.

The hospital donated its help in arranging the services including building a wheelchair ramp to the patio for some of the guests. Although bedside weddings occur in the hospital, most are events with a clergy member or justice of the peace and one or two people.

EMMC agreed to help because of the circumstances. It also made Mason Auditorium, a room usually used for medical lectures and other professional events, available for the wedding dinner. Jeff’s Catering of Bangor served the food.

The wedding was an event at the hospital. On the warm sunny, Saturday afternoon, the patio was decorated with ribbons and framed by distant pine trees and the sparkling Penobscot River. As guests gathered on the patio, hospital employees and patients dallied in front of large windows from the many floors of the hospital to watch the ceremony.

Out of respect for the families’ wishes, only a few people were available to discuss the wedding and how it came about. So only a few details about how Heather and Chris Johnstone’s courtship blossomed were available.

The two met while doing Peace Corps work in Africa. They were in villages in Lesotho separated by a mountain range and 10 miles. While there, they had a special stole of hand-woven wool made for the Rev. Miller. He wore it during the ceremony.

The Millers did their best to minimize the effect of their injuries on the ceremonies. Mary Miller held her right arm to her body without a sling as she walked to the altar ahead of her sister.

Heather herself walked confidently with a smile as invited guests, including a surgeon and emergency medical technicians, looked on. Aside from a small bandage on her breastbone and an occasional cough, there were few other signs of her recent ordeal even though it was on everyone’s minds.

“I am just moved to tears,” said Cartwright, a seven-year veteran of wedding planning. She doubts any of her future weddings will match the emotional intensity of the union of Heather and Chris.

For a family that has experienced near tragedy, to see a wedding immediately thereafter is “much more meaningful,” Cartwright said.