news

In the space of 24 hours, he welcomed a son and lost his beloved wife.

UPDATE: On Saturday, Dylan Benson’s little boy Iver was born. His birth came just seven weeks after his mother Robyn Benson suffered a brain hemorrhage and pronounced brain dead. She was 22 weeks pregnant at the time.

For weeks, doctors kept Robyn alive on life support so that her child could continue to grow. And throughout those weeks, her husband Dylan kept a blog updating readers about progress and appealing for donations to help him raise Iver on his own.

On Monday, two days after Iver’s birth, Dylan updated the blog saying:

Dylan with Iver

Dear readers,

It is with a heavy heart but also with extreme proudness that I am posting this update…

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. As to be expected, it will still be a bumpy ride for he and I as he continues to grow under the care of the wonderful staff at the hospital.

On Sunday, we had to unfortunately say goodbye to the strongest and most wonderful woman I have ever met. 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. She will live on forever within Iver, and in my heart.

Thank you to each and every one of you for your love, your kind words, and your support during this incredibly difficult time. The shares of this page and the thousands of comments that I have received, both here and on the YouCaring donation page, have helped so much with getting through these past days and weeks. I truly appreciate the love and support from all over the world.

All the best to you all.

Dylan (and Iver)

Mamamia previously reported:

Dylan and Roby

On December 28th, Robyn Benson suffered a massive brain hemorrhage. The 32-year-old Canadian woman was taken to hospital, and pronounced brain-dead.

And today, she sits in that same hospital bed, where she will remain for seven more weeks. Because, when Robyn was first admitted to hospital, she was 22 weeks pregnant. And her husband is keeping her alive until their son is born.

It’s a case that differs to that of Marlise Munoz, the Texas woman whose state laws kept her on life support until she had her unborn child. But Robyn’s situation is different. While Marlise’s family wanted her life support to be turned off, as her child in utero had a limited chance of survival, Robyn’s husband, Dylan, is determined to keep Robyn alive.

ADVERTISEMENT

Robyn and Dylan’s child – a boy – has a good chance of survival if delivered by C-Section at 34 weeks.

Dylan said: “The thought process behind this is that if they can keep her body alive and growing our child, it will give our unborn son (his name will be Iver Cohen Benson) a good chance of surviving a c-section at that time. The doctors have said that he now has higher than an 80% of survival and that increases with every day that passes.”

To support himself through this time, Dylan started a You Caring profile to crowdsource funds.

He wrote:

On December 28th, I lost my wife to a sudden hemmorhage of blood to her brain. At the time, she was 22 weeks pregnant.On that Saturday morning, she threw up, and then instantly started suffering from a piercing headache and asked me to go to the store to get some Tylenol for her.
When I came back, she was unconscious, but still breathing in our bathroom. I called 911 immediately. The ambulance came, and they tried to get my wife to respond and for almost an hour before we went to the hospital. At the hospital they discovered that my wife had experienced a massive blood leak into the centre of her brain, and that there was so much blood and pressure and damage that it was irrepairable.Devastatingly, my wife, Robyn, became brain dead.
They performed an operation on my wife’s brain to drain some of the excess blood. Based on my decision, they are attempting to keep her body alive for up to 7 more weeks (potentially until she is at or near 34 weeks pregnant). Incredibly, they have been successful in doing this for 5 weeks now.
The thought process behind this is that if they can keep her body alive and growing our child, it will give our unborn son (his name will be Iver Cohen Benson) a good chance of surviving a c-section at that time. The doctors have said that he now has higher than an 80% of survival and that increases with every day that passes.
There are roughly 30 published medical records of this type of thing being attempted, but so far, amazingly, they have been successful. For the last 5 weeks, Robyn’s body has still been doing most of the work. Her heart rate and blood pressure are for the most part working unassisted. It is essentially only her brain that is not working, and unfortunately, she will not recover from the brain death.
Our family and close friends are all very supportive and all think that my wife would want me to try and give our child the best life possible, so that’s what I’m going to try and do. Assuming that the c-section is successful, of course my son will then spend the next several weeks in the hospital under intensive care until he is ready to be released to me.My days right now consist of a lot of time with family and close friends, and of course time at the hospital visiting Iver and Robyn, and hoping every minute for their health to continue.She was my rock. She did so much for us, and I can’t believe I won’t get to talk to her again. It is very difficult to know that our son will grow up never meeting his wonderful mother, and that we will have to say our goodbyes to Robyn within hours of seeing Iver for the first time.  – See more at: http://www.youcaring.com/help-a-neighbor/baby-iver-fund/133560#sthash.mfLbYMvN.dpuf

He’s asked for public support to raise funds to help him raise his son.

Due to the stress of this situation, and not knowing when they will attempt to deliver Iver (if Robyn’s body becomes unstable, they may need to deliver him within minutes or days), I am unable to work.  The majority of my current and upcoming leave from work will leave me only earning 55% of my salary. I am about to become a single father. Paternity leave for men will only provide me with 35 weeks off from work, and it’s likely that I will be spending the first 6-8 of those in the hospital with Iver before I can take him home. I will need funds towards bills, baby supplies, daycare, housing, food, and transportation.

At the time of writing, they had raised $136,701 of their $36,000 goal, additional money that Dylan says will go toward an education fund for Iver.

And, now, all there is left to do is wait until the day that Iver is delivered.

Dylan concluded his statement on You Caring by saying: “It is very difficult to know that our son will grow up never meeting his wonderful mother, and that we will have to say our goodbyes to Robyn within hours of seeing Iver for the first time.”