Katie Prager, the wife in the real “The Fault in Our Stars” couple, died Thursday after complications from cystic fibrosis at the age of 26, according to CNN. Her husband, Dalton Prager, died just a few days ago, on Saturday, of the same disease. He was 25.
Katie Prager, the wife in the real “The Fault in Our Stars” couple, died Thursday after complications from cystic fibrosis at the age of 26, according to CNN.
Her husband, Dalton Prager, died just a few days ago, on Saturday, of the same disease. He was 25.
“Early this morning, she gained her wish of being at home, in her bed, surrounded by her mom, dad, brother and her dogs, dying peacefully, away from the hospital, tubes, IVs,” her mother, Debra Donovan, posted on Facebook. “The days to follow will not be easy but I find comfort in knowing that my girl lived, she really lived.”
“Dalton fought a long hard battle with cystic fibrosis,” Katie posted on Facebook at the time of his death. “He was a courageous fighter and ‘give up’ wasn’t in his vocabulary.”
Katie had entered hospice care Sept. 7 in Flemingsburg, Kentucky.
Katie and Dalton were called the real life “The Fault in Our Stars” couple. Their love story was similar to the young couple in the movie who were terminal cancer patients that fell in love.
The couple met on Facebook in 2009 when they were 18 years old. Katie saw a photo of Dalton on Facebook that was posted by Dalton’s mother. Katie reached out to him saying, “If you ever need a friend to talk to, you can reach out to me,” she wrote.
The two then became close by writing messages to each other. They were falling in love and wanted to meet but Katie’s doctor discouraged the meeting as Dalton had an infection at the time that can be deadly to those with cystic fibrosis. Katie went to meet Dalton anyways, at a Dairy Queen in Flemingsburg.
“My heart was racing, but I just went right up to him and hugged and kissed him on the mouth without even saying hello,” she recalled. “I’m usually not that kind of girl, but it just felt so right.”
The couple got married about two years after and bought a house in Flemingsburg. Both were relatively healthy for the next few years.
Both Dalton and Katie needed lung transplants and they each had the procedure done within a year of each other. Despite the transplants, both of them had serious medical conditions in the last year.
Dalton was in a St. Louis hospital and he wanted to fly to Kentucky to see Katie but he was never healthy enough to visit her. He died in the hospital on Saturday, September 17.
Katie told CNN the day before Dalton died, “It gave me some of the best years of my life,” she said. “I’d rather have five years of being in love and just really completely happy than 20 years of not having anybody.”
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