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Local Couple Marries In ER After Groom Has Heart Attack On Way To Wedding

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – A local couple got hitched at Forbes Hospital after the groom suffered a heart attack on the way to the wedding.

Bob Adams was 15 minutes away from getting married at the "Jacktown Ride and Hunt Club," when the 68-year-old realized he was having a heart attack. He popped a nitro pill, not letting anything stand in the way of him marrying Mary Pizzuto.

"And I started feeling a little funny," Adams said. "And I thought it was because I was dressed in a suit and tie, which I never wear."

"He said that he was getting married one way or another, no matter what," said paramedic Rob Leuthold. "He wanted it to happen."

The couple first met 36 years ago and eventually reconnected on Facebook.

"My great niece is the one who put my picture on Facebook -- and that's how he found me," Pizzuto said.

However, North Huntingdon EMTs insisted they go to the hospital. Adams was in the back with a heart monitor, IV and medication – his bride rode in the front of the ambulance.

"She was a nervous wreck," said EMT Beth Walter. "She was up front and an absolute nervous wreck."

EMTs were also concerned with what the family said as they left.

"She herself had had five heart attacks," said Walter. "So they were all worried about her."

But the couple wasn't going to let the heart attack stop their nuptials.

The preacher showed up and they got married right there in the emergency room.

"The preacher come in and the thing I said was, 'We're not doing the last rites - we're doing a marriage,'" Adams said. "And everybody bust out laughing."

Adams is recovering from successful angioplasty and the couple plans to spend their honeymoon in Las Vegas.

In the hospital room, Pizzuto leans over to give Adams a kiss and he says, "that's my baby."

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