A Central Florida groom on his way to his own wedding was hit head-on by another vehicle in Altamonte Springs, leaving him with two broken arms, two broken ribs, a broken jaw and a severe knee injury — so the couple exchanged vows anyway, in a private wing of Orlando Regional Medical Center.
The crash happened about 15 minutes from the wedding venue, according to the family's GoFundMe fundraiser, as reported by WFTV. The other vehicle struck a median before hitting the groom's car head-on, per the fundraiser page, and the couple's vehicle was totaled in the wreck. Rather than postpone the ceremony, the pair married inside the hospital, trading a honeymoon for a recovery room.
Maurice Mathies, the bride's brother, organized the GoFundMe campaign and said the groom is now his brother-in-law. The bride has remained at the hospital with the groom throughout his recovery, according to the fundraiser. The groom works in a warehouse job he is now unable to return to because of his injuries, leaving the newlyweds facing both mounting medical expenses and a sudden loss of income.
A Trauma Center Built for Cases Like This
Orlando Regional Medical Center, where the couple married, is an 808-bed hospital in downtown Orlando that serves as Central Florida's only Level 1 Trauma Center for adult patients, according to Wikipedia. The hospital unveiled a $25 million renovation of its emergency department in January 2025 that doubled the size of its trauma center to six enlarged bays, capable of scaling up to 12 during mass-casualty events, per FOX 35 Orlando. A Hoodline report described a separate Colonial Drive crash in which four crash victims were transported to ORMC.
Getting married inside a hospital room is legally possible in Florida because the state is one of the few that allows commissioned notaries public to solemnize marriages, according to Florida law published on Online Sunshine. Florida notaries may charge up to a statutory $30 fee to perform the ceremony. State residents are also generally required to observe a three-day waiting period between purchasing a marriage license from a county clerk and holding the ceremony, unless they complete a state-approved premarital course, according to the Orange County Clerk of Courts. Marriage licenses remain valid statewide for 60 days once issued.
Fundraiser Falls Well Short of Its Goal
The GoFundMe campaign, created to help cover medical expenses, lost income and day-to-day living costs, set a goal of $7,000 but had raised just over $1,300 as of the latest update. That shortfall tracks with a broader pattern documented in a study published in the American Journal of Public Health, which examined more than 437,000 U.S. GoFundMe medical campaigns between 2016 and 2020 and found that only 12 percent ever met their target, while 16 percent received no donations at all. Despite the long odds, crowdfunding has become a common lifeline for families facing sudden medical crises — an AP-NORC poll released in January found that roughly 2 in 10 U.S. adults donated to an online crowdfunding campaign in the prior year, with medical expenses the single most common cause.
A Dangerous Stretch of Road
The wreck adds to a troubling pattern of serious crashes in Seminole County. Statewide, Florida has also seen serious traffic crashes. Altamonte Springs in particular has seen other serious collisions in recent months.
It remains unclear whether the driver who struck the groom's vehicle head-on has faced any citations or charges, as that detail was not addressed in the family's fundraiser account of the crash. For now, the couple is focused on the groom's recovery from his multiple fractures, with the wedding they never expected already behind them — inside a hospital room instead of at the altar.
