Couple celebrate wedding by honoring doctor who saved groom’s life

A Friday night wedding at a winery off Highway 140 would never have been possible, Carlos Lopez said, if it weren’t for the dedication and help of one man.

“I shouldn’t be alive today,” Lopez said. “This man saved my life.”

At around 7:15 p.m., Lopez, 58, and his wife, Sheri Lopez, 51, stood in front of the hall at Vista Ranch surrounded by family and friends to dedicate a plaque to the man who saved Lopez, Dr. Joerg Schuller of Atwater Medical Center.

“This man brought me back from the brink of death,” said the recently recovering Lopez.

Lopez had high blood pressure for two years without getting checked out, resulting in two strokes and a heart attack. He was paralyzed on the right side of his body for about four months.

Lopez, born and raised in Merced, joined the military after high school, receiving a purple heart and spending time around the world in places like Berlin, Baghdad and Bosnia. Before going to Afghanistan for 14 months, Lopez worked at the Sheriff’s Office in Merced and retired last year in November.

Lopez met his wife on match.com and said they are going on their fourth year of being together.

“He (Lopez) deserves a lot of credit,” Schuller said. “People like him.”

The plaque honoring Schuller had two pieces of history attached, a piece of the Berlin Wall and a piece of Iraqi currency, above the plaque said “A physician shall be dedicated to providing competent medical care, with compassion and respect for the human dignity and rights (…).”

When the newly wed Mr. and Mrs. Lopez gave Schuller the plaque, he was speechless, embracing Lopez with open arms, his eyes swelling up and words of gratitude filtering out.

“I think the only thing I could say is that it’s the least I could do,” Schuller said. “It was my way of saying thank you. I am humbled by what Carlos has done.”

Schuller and Lopez’s son, Carlos Lopez Jr., talked about the dedication and care Lopez put into serving the country. Schuller said his plaque was more of a testimony to Lopez, because he freed and saved people while he was in the service.

“He was very dedicated to his work, his country,” Lopez’s son said. “He volunteered to leave his family and cared about what he was doing.”

Lopez said after his first stroke Schuller found two different blockages to his heart, and through an MRI found a spot of dead brain tissue the size of a quarter. Lopez said his brain is still rewiring, his speech and motor skills almost back on track, and that Schuller did the most he could to balance out the medications Lopez needed while staying informed on new treatments.

“He didn’t stop until he found the right treatment,” Lopez said.

Schuller’s wife, Victoria Schuller, said her husband spends a lot of his personal time researching and helping patients, exactly what he did for Lopez. She said he diagnosed him, listened to him and made sure he received treatment he needed.

“I am honored to be his wife,” Schuller said.

This story was originally published April 25, 2016 at 7:29 PM with the headline "Couple celebrate wedding by honoring doctor who saved groom’s life."