Brain-dead woman dies after giving birth, Latest Others News - The New Paper
News

Brain-dead woman dies after giving birth

This article is more than 12 months old

Doctors in Canada have delivered a frail but healthy baby boy from a brain-dead woman kept on life support for several weeks, the infant's father wrote in a blog post.

Mr Dylan Benson, 32, had been keeping a running online account of his personal tragedy, recording his emotions as he grieved for his wife and prepared for the birth of his son.

Doctors, who had hoped to be able to keep the pregnancy going for 34 weeks, delivered the boy over the weekend via Caesarean section after 28 weeks.

"On Saturday evening, my beautiful and amazing son, Iver Cohen Benson, was born," Mr Benson wrote in a blog post on Monday, shortly after the birth at a hospital in British Columbia, on the west coast of Canada.

Mr Benson said that the day after delivering the baby, doctors disconnected the life support equipment that had allowed his wife's body to incubate their unborn son. She died soon after, AFP reported.

He wrote: "On Sunday, we had to unfortunately say goodbye to the strongest and most wonderful woman I have ever met."

COLLAPSED

Mrs Robyn Benson, 32, collapsed in late December when she was 22 weeks pregnant, and was declared brain dead from a haemorrhage.

The moving online odyssey was followed by readers around the Internet, who donated C$152,000 (S$175,000) for Iver's medical bills.

Mr Benson wrote that his son is doing well despite being several weeks premature, and posted a photo in which he is shown holding the tiny child in the hospital's intensive care ward.

The post was captioned "Immensely sad, but incredibly proud".

He wrote: "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."

Amid the joy of his son's birth, the widowed Mr Benson wrote that he grieves the loss of his wife.

He said: "I miss Robyn more than words can explain. She will live on forever within Iver, and in my heart."