She wouldn't be alive without him — so she asked her doctor to walk her down the aisle

A person might meet someone who matters a lot to them beyond their family at times. It could be because of their circumstances or because someone went above and beyond to help them. A bride decided to do something special for one such person in her life. She decided to walk down the aisle with the transplant surgeon who had saved her life not once, but twice through a liver transplant. According to People, the surgeon immediately said yes to her offer. 

When the woman, Jenny Tice, was only 8 months old, she was diagnosed with a rare bile duct disorder called biliary atresia. A liver transplant is necessary for survival. However, back in 1989, a transplant was rarely offered to a baby under 2 years old, as it was considered very risky and difficult, according to Stanford Medicine. "When I was 8 months old, I turned jaundiced and wasn’t gaining weight. That’s when they found out that there was something wrong." Around the same time, Dr. Carlos Esquivel, MD, chief of the Division of Transplantation at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, had started advocating for offering transplants to sick babies. The doctor ended up saving the lives of hundreds of people, including Tice, at that time.

"He goes above and beyond the call of duty. Knowing that this is really that person’s only chance and that he’s giving them a second chance—I feel like he holds that very sacred," the woman pointed out. When she was 30 years old and had to be hospitalized again because of her liver condition, the doctor walked in and simply told her, "Long time, no see." The second surgery was a complicated 8-hour procedure, and Tice knew it would require someone with the skill level of Dr. Esquivel, according to PEOPLE. Once again, the doctor had saved her life. So when she got engaged to her husband, Robert Nathaniel Eberhart, she decided that her surgeon would be the one to walk her down the aisle on her special day.

"When Nathan asked me to be his wife, my second thought after saying 'heck yes' was that I wanted my surgeon to walk me down the aisle. He is my hero and he has walked me from almost death to living a full life with the opportunity to fall in love, get married and now soon to be a mother in May," the woman highlighted.

When she asked him if he would do that for her at her January wedding, the doctor immediately accepted her offer. "I just remember feeling this calm come over me that is hard to describe. Before I walked down, I remember saying, 'Let's do this,'" Tice recounted.

"I knew this day would not have been possible if he had not stepped up to the impossible task of helping very sick babies like me when Dr. Starzl, his mentor, told him to go save the babies," she continued. "This day would not have been possible without the hope and the story of my liver transplant." Dr. Esquivel pointed out, "It beats any honors I've received along the way." Thanks to the surgeon, the woman now lives an active life and has a successful and thriving career. She also does volunteer work for an organization that advocates for research into biliary atresia.