ER Nurses Who Met During Pandemic Get Engaged on Hospital's Rooftop Helipad: 'Total Shock'

"It was by far the most stressful day of my life but it was worth it," Jacob Young said of proposing to Kelsey Dunlap

ER nurses helipad proposal
Jacob Young and Kelsey Dunlap . Photo: Chad Corliss Photography

Two Georgia emergency room nurses, who met during the COVID-19 pandemic, are now engaged — and it all happened on the rooftop where they fell in love.

Kelsey Dunlap thought Oct. 15 would be "just another day at work, picking up another patient off the helipad," according to her Facebook post.

But her boyfriend, Jacob Young — whom Dunlap met last year while working for Wellstar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta, per CBS affiliate WGCL — had other ideas.

"INSTEAD…. The love of my life flew in on a helicopter, dropped to a knee, and made me the luckiest girl on the planet," Dunlap wrote in her post.

As shown in an adorable video, which was posted to Dunlap's Facebook, the ER nurse had just gotten to the rooftop of the hospital, where she was wheeling a stretcher to the AirLife helicopter preparing to pick up a patient.

But one she arrived at the helicopter's door, Young came around the corner and approached Dunlap with a ring box in hand.

"It didn't register what was going on until he dropped to a knee and then it clicked," Dunlap recalled to WGCL. "I was like, 'Oh my gosh, he's asking me to marry him.' "

ER nurses helipad proposal
Jacob Young after proposing to Kelsey Dunlap. Chad Corliss Photography

After saying yes, the two shared a long embrace as a photographer snapped photos of the newly-engaged pair.

"I'm still in awe," Dunlap wrote in her Facebook post. "I can't wait to become Mrs. Young and spend forever with my best friend."

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Speaking to CNN after the surprise proposal, Dunlap said she had no idea that Young was planning to pop the question.

"I was in complete and total shock," she recalled. "I'm not an easy girl to surprise so bless his heart he somehow pulled it off."

Though the proposal went off without a hitch, Young admits it wasn't the easiest thing to plan.

"It took a village," he told CNN. "It took about three other nurses, two or three people from my management team to come up with this whole scheme, lie, to get her up on the chopper at the exact right moment for what I thought was the perfect idea for us."

"It was by far the most stressful day of my life but it was worth it," Young added to WGCL.

ER nurses helipad proposal
Jacob Young and Kelsey Dunlap. Chad Corliss Photography

Young also had to figure out how to get a photographer on the helipad without Dunlap suspecting anything. Luckily, he had the perfect excuse.

"I knew [the photographer] was there because he told me he was taking pictures for ER Nurses Week," Dunlap told CNN. "I honestly didn't think twice about it and [he] had me totally fooled all morning, taking pictures of us doing random nursing tasks."

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Reflecting on their sweet love story, Dunlap said she couldn't feel luckier.

"I shadowed him one night and then fell in love with Kennestone and everyone who was there," she recalled to WGCL. "When you know, you know."

"This has been a very rough last two years for everyone in healthcare but we are just so blessed to get to have my best friend and my biggest rock at work with me every day," she added to CNN. "We get to go home together, it's just really incredible that we got to meet and grow our relationship."

The two ER nurses are now planning to ride that high — straight to the altar.

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