Deadly Disease or Loveless Life: Husband from Real Life ‘Fault in Our Stars’ Couple Dies

If an incurable genetic disorder can’t keep them apart, nothing can.

An eighteen year old boy met an eighteen year old girl. Both with Cystic Fibrosis. Met online and later face-to-face in a Dairy Queen parking lot. Dalton, the husband, dies on homecoming night over facetime with his wife who comforted him as he took his last breaths. They were warned by multiple nurses, doctors, and their families the dangers of meeting in person. But ignored such warning simply because they were in love. The disease brought them together, but now has taken them apart.

CNN referred to this couple as ‘the real fault in our stars couple’ after the novel written by John Green about

two cancer-stricken patients who fall in love. This widely popular novel became a movie which produced even more popularity. Since then Katie and Dalton's’ story has surfaced on the internet. They go through similar struggles of the fictional characters. This created a buzz in social media and news.

They were both born with cystic fibrosis. Suffering from this makes doing normal activities rare and therapy and hospital visits very frequent. It’s a gene that causes the body to produce a thick, sticky-like mucus to build up and clog airways, interferes with the respiratory, digestive and reproductive systems. This creates serious infections that make the organs feeble. There have been some medical advances that make for more effective treatments and surgeries, but make little difference other than to live more comfortably. Additionally, they are expensive. Katie and Dalton had a facebook page made to help pay for these advances. People are kept updated and can donate money to keep the together more often and as long as possible.

Dalton and Katie met at the age of 18 online where they exchanged their stories and struggles. From there, their love for each other only grew. They talked through facebook for a while until they could no longer stand to be apart. Katie said she told Dalton, “I’d rather be happy -- like really, really happy -- for five years of my life and die sooner than be mediocre happy and live for 20 years.” and that’s exactly what she did.

They spent time together still. Dalton drove six long and hopeful hours from St. Charles, MO., to Katies home in Flemingsburg, KY. Instead of doing what they were told, they did the complete opposite. They got married and were married for five years. From the start they helped each other through everything. Dolton passed on the highly contagious disease to Katie, like the doctors had predicted. They had surgeries, oxygen tanks, IV drips, getting nutrition from tubes, and were both on the long lung transplant waiting list. Not all was bad though. They bought a home in Kentucky and their rescue dogs were their children and went on vacations when surgeries had been delayed.

Katie and Dalton had to be separated. This time, they didn’t have a choice. Katie and Dalton were both on the transplant list. Dalton got his first. The couple had to be separated for eight months, until she got hers. According to their facebook page, Katie had complications with her lung transplant but wanted to see her sick husband one more time before either of them died. On September 17, homecoming night, as Dalton was taking his last breaths, Katie spoke to him through facetime.

The reason why their story became so well known is because of the romance novel. Since it became so popular and the circumstances are similar people are drawn to their story. It seems as though that wouldn’t happen in real life like most romance movies but it did to them. People want to believe that something like this happens in real life. It seems as though it can be a small sliver of hope for people who want to believe that what happens in the movies can also happen in reality.

Why they became really attracted to each other is unknown. It may be that they didn’t know themselves. It could have all been the disease. It could have been their personalities. Thinking about it raises some question? If they hadn’t had the disease, would they have connected so well? Would they have even talked if they hadn’t known they were going through the same things? Is it foolish of her to have met this man in person, even when she knew what was extremely likely to happen?

If another would have found a potential partner but to meet would have been deadly, would they?