Des Moines Sun

An Iowa man weds in a Council Bluffs hospital after his long COVID-19 battle. 

Jonathan Johnson and his fiancee Mariah Copeland married in the intensive care unit, where Johnson was on a ventilator for more than three weeks, the Associated Press reported. 

“Just a tad bit surprised about this one ...  so someone who is just off a vent from Covid can kiss someone in a hospital, but I still have to wear a mask in hospitals and many other places? Hmmm,” Dan Conley said in a post to his Facebook account Nov. 6. 

Johnson and Copeland share a 2-year-old son together. Johnson got help from the hospital staff to arrange the wedding, and he was able to say “I do” from his hospital bed, the AP reported. By the time that Copeland and Johnson got married, Johnson was no longer isolated or contagious.  

Johnson arranged the wedding with hospital staff as a surprise for his now wife. Johnson's coronavirus diagnosis came in September, and he then quarantined in his bedroom away from his family. Copeland tested positive for the coronavirus as well but with much less severe symptoms. 

The date for the wedding is registered as Oct. 22, according to the official legal paperwork.