Jenny Tice wanted an important person by her side for her big day.
After her now-husband Robert Nathaniel Eberhart popped the question, the 36-year-old immediately knew who she envisioned walking her down the aisle at their wedding: Dr. Carlos Esquivel, the surgeon who performed two life-saving surgeries on her.
“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,” Jenny told People in an interview published March 5. “He is my hero.”
Indeed, Dr. Esquivel has been an important part of Jenny’s life since she was 8 months old, when she was diagnosed with biliary atresia, a rare disorder that affects the bile ducts in the body and can lead to liver damage or other complications, according to Cleveland Clinic.
Because of her condition, which can be fatal in newborns, Jenny needed a liver transplant before the age of 2, and Dr. Esquivel—who is chief of the Division of Transplantation at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health in California—was the one to successfully perform the surgery.