A Texas nurse is fighting for her life in hospital battling a life-threatening illness after falling sick just two days into her honeymoon in Japan.
Sarah Danh, 27, landed in San Antonio Tuesday evening following a grueling 20-hour flight from the Asian country, where she was in hospital with acute liver failure, according to People.
The labor delivery nurse and her partner of seven years Luke Gradl, 28, tied the knot in Houston’s Spring Branch neighborhood on March 21 in what he described as their “dream wedding” – and flew to Tokyo on April 8.
“When we arrived at the hotel the afternoon of April 8, she was not feeling well. So, we decided to rest that day because we had 16 total days in Japan, so we could afford to rest half a day,” budding pilot Gradl told the outlet.
“April 9 things started to go bad very quickly, so I immediately took her to the hospital just before midnight where we were admitted to the emergency room, and the next day moved to the ICU because of life-threatening health decline.”
The symptoms she suffered from included jaundice, body aches, and vomiting.
Gradl said his wife didn’t show any signs of illness before their trip abroad.
Japanese doctors diagnosed Danh with acute liver failure – but Gradl said she was also suffering from kidney failure and intracranial brain pressure, describing her battle a “test like no other.”
Danh, who works at Methodist Stone Oak Hospital, needs to have a liver transplant, and family friend Danniella Ongmanchi created a GoFundMe, raising more than $175,000 to cover hospital bills.
“Being away from home during such a vulnerable time has been incredibly difficult for Sarah and her husband, Luke, as they try to navigate the uncertainty and worry together,” Ongmanchi said, documenting the couple’s ordeal.
Gradl’s parents’ son-in-law even joined calls with doctors in Japan while Danh was in hospital.
“I don’t know how we would have survived without him,” Gradl’s mom, Sally, told Fox San Antonio.
Video, obtained by WOAI, showed Danh strapped to a gurney being lifted onto a medical plane in Japan before the grueling flight, which included three refueling stops.
In a Facebook post updating Danh’s followers about her health, her uncle Khang Le said the flight was a risk worth taking.
A US transplant team is on standby waiting for the nurse.
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