Social Good

Over on Reddit, r/askmen user Dylan Benson (under his handle, u/IFUCKGRILLEDCHEESE), posted a heart-wrenching story a few weeks back in December in a thread titled “Any advice on how I can be strong and how to keep moving forward?”

An avid Redditor myself, I recall Benson’s thread. I commented. And in it, he told a story so upsetting many users were suspect the dude was trolling. Feeling compelled, I shared the thread to my own Facebook page — where many of my own friends expressed some skepticism due to the heavy and heartbreaking content.

As Benson reported in late December — well, here he is in his own, harrowing earlier words:

“My wife is dying. We are both 32, she is 22 weeks pregnant. Yesterday morning she was complaining of a headache and asked me to go to the store to get some Tylenol for her and when I came back she was unconscious on the bathroom floor. I called 911, the ambulance came and they tried to get my wife to respond and to breathe for almost an hour before we went to the hospital.”

He continued:

“At the hospital they discovered that my wife had a fluke random type of blood leak into the centre of her brain and that there was so much blood and damage that it is not reversible. My wife is now essentially legally brain dead. They performed a surgery on my wife’s brain to drain some of the excess blood from her brain and now they are going to try and keep her body alive for four more weeks; The thought process behind this is that if they can keep her body alive and growing our child until she is 26 weeks pregnant it will give our unborn son a 60 to 80% chance of surviving a C-section that time.”

Later, he pauses to add:

“It’s likely today that they will declare my wife legally brain dead. I can go visit her as much as I want over the next 4 weeks (hopefully it’s 4 weeks and this all works) but my wife is essentially gone … Ugh. I don’t know what to do or think. She is my rock. She does everything for us and I can’t believe I won’t get to talk to her again and now if this works, our son will grow up never meeting his wonderful mother.”

Benson concluded:

“Any advice on how I can try and stay strong, and anything you think I should be doing?”

In a previous update thread, he reflected:

“The toughest part about this is knowing that no matter what, the day he is born will be the same day I have to say goodbye to my wife, and that day now has a timeline attached to it, however I still don’t know when that day will come.”

Last night, r/askmen user u/MoeBetterBooze posted an update. Many Redditors were left unsure of what to make of the story, and things scarily looked quite touch and go for the baby per Benson’s original post.

The update thread, titled “Askmener /u/IFUCKGRILLEDCHEESE whose pregnant wife has been kept on life support to allow their son a chance is now a daddy,” explains that Benson had been featured in the local news, and that he posted to Facebook with an announcement.

The good news is Baby Redditor Iver Cohen Benson arrived safely into the world on Monday night, as reported by his dad on Facebook.

Benson explained:

“It’s earlier than we planned … Over the past six weeks, we made life-changing decisions all the time. So we had hoped to get to week 30 before delivering, but we made it as far as we could. On Saturday, when Robyn was 28 weeks and one day, the time was right for us and for Iver.”

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Of the healthy but premature baby boy, Dylan gushes:

“It was the most incredible experience of my life so far … He just looks perfect. I’ve never been more proud, and getting to hold him yesterday was something I will never forget and something I look forward to doing every day.”

Below, Dylan Benson’s entire update regarding the birth of baby Iver and the loss of wife Robyn:

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In the wake of Robyn’s sudden passing, a Baby Iver fund has been started to offset Dylan’s costs in raising the child.

[Image: Dylan Benson, Facebook]