An Italian newspaper says a terminally ill woman was briefly awoken from an induced coma to get married.
La Repubblica reported that the 50-year-old nurse asked doctors to help her marry her longtime partner after being diagnosed in July with a terminal strain of hepatitis.
The Rome daily — which only gave the woman's first name, Giovanna, and her husband's, Enzo — reported that family members and witnesses donned masks and sterilized clothes to attend the ceremony Sunday in the northern city of Padua.
Doctors brought the woman to consciousness for a few minutes — long enough to say "yes" — before she slipped back into the coma, which was induced to relieve pain, the paper said. The couple's son was also at the ceremony, the paper reported, but did not give his age or name.
This is “a last wish that finally became reality,” the paper quoted Enzo as saying. “This is a fairy tale, a dream.”
The woman is only expected to live for a few weeks, according to unidentified doctors cited by the daily.
The newspaper said city hall official Giuseppe Contino married the couple. Contino did not return calls seeking comment and his office said he did not wish to give further interviews.
Hospital officials at the Vincenzo Gallucci cardiac center also declined to discuss the event, citing privacy laws.
The newspaper did not say whether it was following the family's wishes or Italy's strict privacy laws for not giving the couple's full names.