Just after Christmas, Dylan Benson’s nightmare began when his pregnant wife Robyn, complaining of a headache, was rushed to hospital where doctors gave him the devastating news.
She had suffered from a cerebral brain hemorrhage and there was nothing doctors could do to save her.
"Her brain isn't alive but she is. I can still go in there and hold her hand and talk to her -- things like that," Dylan said in tears.
At 28 weeks pregnant, Robyn's body is being kept alive on a ventilator but Dylan will eventually be forced to make the hard decision to take his wife off life support.
But hope remains high for the couple’s unborn son, already named Iver, who has been kept alive inside his mother’s womb for five weeks and three days so doctors can perform a risky and rare caesarian section at 34 weeks of pregnancy when the baby has grown enough.
“I couldn’t say yes to potentially losing them both if there was a chance of saving our son. So I said let’s do everything we can to make that happen,” said Dylan.
A rarely tried and somewhat controversial decision, a similar case in Texas gained international attention when a hospital tried to keep a brain-dead woman alive despite the family’s wishes.
Much later in baby Iver’s gestation, doctors think the likelihood of success is higher in this case and the island community is rallying behind the Benson family.
“I know exactly what he's going through and what he's going to go through,” said George Friesen, a father himself who donated $1000 to the baby Iver fund.
By midday Monday, online donations had surpassed the $36,000 fundraising goal. Staff at a chain of liquor stores in Victoria are also fundraising the money will go to help Benson raise his son.
“It's overwhelming and I've never been a dad before. I know there's a lot of stuff that I don't know what it’s going to be like,” said Dylan.
Doctors hope to keep Robyn Benson alive for another 6.5 weeks before performing the C-section.
With files from Ed Watson and Canadian Press
