Woman, 23, warned she might need finger AMPUTATED after proposal took a horrifying turn

The first test of Iona Hadaway’s marriage vows came early when she was hospitalised just HOURS after getting engaged—because her partner proposed with a ring that was several sizes too small. 

Ms Hadaway, 23, was on cloud nine when her partner of eight months Jacob Bugliarello, 20, got down on one knee at an Italian restaurant in their home town of Crewe, Cheshire. 

But before the night was over, she got to find out if he was really willing to stand by her in sickness and in health when she almost had to have her finger amputated after her ‘too small’ engagement ring cut off circulation to her vital digit. 

She said:  ‘I tried to put the ring on and I knew it was a bit too small but I forced it on anyway because it’s exciting isn’t it? And I wanted the ring on.’ 

The ecstatic couple then visited both of their parents to share their happy news and for Ms Hadaway, who works as a corporate banker, to show off her sparkler. 

However, as she flashed her precious piece of jewellery to her delighted family, she noticed that her ring finger had started to balloon in size—and was throbbing with pain.

Ms Haddaway said: ‘We went to his [Jacob’s] house and his mum wanted to see the ring close up so I tried to take it off and it would not come off.

‘I was gutted but I was like, “can you just get it off because I’ve had enough now”.’

Unable to remove the silver band, Ms Hadaway and her husband-to-be attended A&E at Crewe Leighton Hospital that evening. 

Here, doctors tried some tried and tested methods to shift the stuck love token.  

They covered Ms Hadaway’s finger in Fairy Liquid to lubricate the ring so it would slip off of her finger, but to no avail. 

They also tried yanking it off after tying a piece of twine to it. 

Eventually, the medics concluded that there was no other option apart from cutting it off—just hours after the dizzying moment she first put it on and vowed to never remove it. 

It was a heartbreaking decision—but it saved her finger.   

Doctors told her that if she had waited overnight she’d have lost her finger altogether due to the circulation being entirely cut off.

Ms Haddaway said: ‘I could have lost my finger.

‘She [a member of hospital staff] said it’s a good job I went when I did because if I’d have left it overnight my finger probably would have died.

‘There was no circulation at all in my finger.’ 

Ms Haddaway and Mr Bugliarello met through a friend and went on their first date to a smokehouse in January this year.

Despite only being together for a few months, the couple are looking to the future, saving up for their first house, with their dream wedding set for 2027. 

Ms Haddaway said: ‘When you know you know don’t you?

‘The first time we actually met he stayed at my house. He didn’t leave for like four days.’ 

They are hoping that the ring—which is a size R, the same size as the rings she wears on her opposite hand—can be repaired by a jeweller.   

She said: ‘I’m engaged but I don’t feel engaged because I’ve not got my ring on.

‘Everyone wants to see it and I’m like, “I’ve only got a picture”.’

Despite the drama and disappointment about being without her ring, Ms Haddaway is grateful that her fiancé proposed when he did—as things could have been catastrophic.  

She said: ‘I thought he would do [propose] in September when we go to Turkey.

‘But he decided to do it a bit earlier due to a family member not being well.

‘We don’t know if they’re going to be around when it happens so he did it a bit earlier.

‘But I’m glad he didn’t do it in Turkey—otherwise I would have had to go to the hospital in Turkey.’