Canadian Dad Bids Final Goodbye to Brain-dead Pregnant Wife After Son’s Birth
It was a bittersweet ending for first-time dad Dylan Benson. On Saturday, he held for the first time his son baby Iver after doctors performed a C section on his mother and extracted him. On Sunday, Dylan made a final goodbye to Robyn who had been brain-dead since December but had to be put on life support just so her son, whom she will never get to see, would have a better chance of survival.
"It is with a heavy heart but also with extreme proudness that I am posting this update," Mr Benson wrote on his personal blog on Monday. "On Saturday evening, my beautiful and amazing son, Iver Cohen Benson, was born. Iver is healthy and is the cutest and most precious person I have ever met."
"On the first day I got to go see him, he squeezed my finger with his tiny little hand ... pretty amazing."
He was married to Robyn for only seven months when the tragedy occurred.
"I miss Robyn more than words can explain. I could not be more impressed with her strength, and I am so lucky to have known her," he wrote. "She will live on forever within Iver, and in my heart."
Just into her fifth month pregnancy, Robyn complained of a headache just before collapsing from a brain hemorrhage in late December. She was rushed to hospital unresponsive. The next day, doctors declared her brain-dead.
"I don't think I have the right words to describe it," Mr Benson told Vancouver Sun. "It's the best and definitely the worst thing to ever happen to me in my life at the same time."
Weighing 2 pounds and 13 ounces, Iver was born just after 28 weeks in Robyn's womb.
Doctors in Victoria, British Columbia, kept Robyn alive in consideration of the unborn fetus, until such time that baby Iver can be born.
"It was just ... it was time. Robyn held on as long as she could," Mr Benson said. "It was relieving to finally have him here and so comforting to be able to hold him."
"It's been a crazy roller-coaster of emotion recently and it's so bittersweet. I'm so happy to have him here and so sad to not have Robyn."
Dylan and Robyn were high school sweethearts. They dated for 16 years and were finally married only in July 2013.