KNIGHTDALE, N.C. – Lack of health care, not lack of love, has put wedding plans on hold indefinitely for a North Carolina couple after the bride-to-be was paralyzed in a freak accident.
Rachelle Friedman was paralyzed from the chest down after one of her bridesmaids shoved her into a pool just a month before her June wedding to her college sweetheart.
If Friedman and fiance Chris Chapman tie the knot, Friedman would stop receiving the Medicaid checks she needs to pay for her constant care and rehabilitation. Still, Chapman hasn’t left his love’s side.
“We know we’re a strong couple,” Friedman, 25, told ABC News. “And when I got hurt, it never crossed my mind that he would ever leave.”
As a married couple, their combined income would be too high to qualify for the Medicaid payments. So the pair plans to live together in a home in the Raleigh suburb of Knightdale until they can figure out their insurance issues and have that dream wedding Friedman was planning for last June.