A Victoria woman who was declared brain dead is being kept on life support until doctors can deliver her unborn child.
Dylan Benson visits his wife Robyn in the hospital every day as their baby boy -- already named Iver – grows inside of her.
Robyn, then five months pregnant, suffered a rare blood leak in late December that caused irreversible damage to her brain.
Now, doctors are hoping that they can keep her on a ventilator until the baby grows enough to be delivered via a caesarean section.
After Benson wrote about his family tragedy online, a family friend started raising funds for him and the unborn child. By Monday afternoon, more than $50,000 had been raised.
On the day Robyn collapsed, “she said she had a terrible, terrible headache,” Benson told CTV News.
He went out to buy Tylenol for her, but when he returned home, Robyn was unresponsive.
“She was in the bathroom just leaning against the wall and she just wouldn’t answer…”
After Robyn was declared brain dead at the hospital, doctors told Benson that, if he wanted to, they could keep her on a ventilator in hopes of eventually delivering the baby. She has now been kept alive for more than five weeks.
“We go see her every day and she is doing so much to grow our son,” Benson said. “Her brain is not alive, but she still is.’
Benson said he sits next to his wife every day, holds her hand and talks to her.
“We all understand the depth of love and appreciation for your significant other and your child,” said Benson’s friend Rod Phillips.
“That goes to a place that most of us may not have words for.”
With a report from CTV Vancouver Island’s Joe Perkins
