Groom-to-be worried that fiancée wouldn't marry him after he suffered serious chemical burns — but she never wavered: 'There’s nothing that would stop me'

A Georgia couple became husband and wife on their originally scheduled wedding date despite a nearly catastrophic accident that left the groom badly injured.

Last September, Preston Cobb, a decorated Iraq War veteran and father of three from Toccoa, Georgia, proposed marriage to his girlfriend, Tanesha. She accepted, and the two began making plans for their big day, which was slated for July 22.

Everything seemed to be going along smoothly until June 30, just three weeks before the wedding. That day, there was a chemical spill at the plant where Cobb worked, and Cobb accidentally slipped and fell in a puddle of it, which was reportedly 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit. He later compared the immediate aftermath of the experience to crawling out of lava.

"I literally watched the skin from my elbow, like, detach and literally just go to dust and crumble," Cobb recalled. "I literally felt like that was going to be the end."

Fortunately, Cobb did not die in the incident, but he did have to be airlifted to the Augusta Burn ICU for treatment. In subsequent days and weeks, Cobb had to have nine toes amputated, four fingers on his right hand amputated, and four fingers on his left hand partially amputated. Nearly a third of his body was burned in the accident.

Because of the serious changes to his body, Cobb feared that Tanesha would no longer want to marry him because he was no longer "the same person that asked her to marry" him less than a year ago.

He needn't have worried. Tanesha, described not just as Preston's "rock" but as his "boulder," was fully devoted to her fiancé and worried only that they would have to delay their wedding so that he could focus on his health and recovery. Cobb remains at the JMS Burn Center at Doctors Hospital and will have to undergo one surgery per week for the next month in preparation for a skin graft surgery for his arms and legs, a GoFundMe account established in his name claimed.

Inspired by the couple's love and commitment, nurses and other staff pooled their money and their resources to arrange to host a wedding right there in the hospital. The medical team hired a photographer and DJ, arranged a potluck meal, and even made decorations for the occasion.

"Preston was adamant that he was not going to change his wedding date," claimed Mary Cook, the JMS Burn Center nurse who initially orchestrated the wedding plans.

On July 22, in front of a small group of family and friends, Preston and Tanesha became Mr. and Mrs. Cobb, just as they had originally planned. "There’s nothing that would stop me from marrying him," Tanesha Cobb said after the ceremony. "Nothing. I knew that this day would come."

"My condition ... still didn’t stop me from marrying the woman of my dreams," Preston Cobb added.

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