Dad with brain cancer leaves ICU to see son’s birth

“Oh my God. Oh my God!”

As his newborn baby son cried his first cries and took his first
breaths, Cagney Wenk tearfully murmured those three words over and over.

Wenk, 26, had just witnessed the
birth of his first child while sitting in a nearby chair hooked up to medical devices, head wrapped in a bandage, wearing sunglasses to protect his eyes. The new dad was recently diagnosed with an aggressive form
of brain cancer and has been through multiple surgeries. 

He found out he had stage 4 glioblastoma three weeks before
he and his fiancé, Jessica Li, were expecting their first child, his
sister Marissa Wenk told The Huffington Post. He was diagnosed, she said, after experiencing headaches for three days.

Wenk is also undergoing radiation and chemotherapy for the
cancer, which lies deep in the right lobe of his brain.

On September 18, when Li went into labor, Wenk’s nurses in
the intensive care unit at Boulder Community Hospital wanted to do something
special for the couple. They brought him up from the ICU to the maternity ward
– medicines and medical equipment in tow – so that the soon-to-be dad could be
there for the birth.

His nurses also enlisted the help of Colorado photographer and
videographer Sara Boccolucci, from the organization Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep,
who documented the birth.

“The video was really for the family to have it as a memory
of a magical moment,” Wenk’s sister told The Huffington Post. “I think the video
shows it all with their reactions. There were so many tears, emotions and so
much love.” 

Wenk described in the video how expecting a child changed his life. 

“He got me a job. He taught me to relax. He’s taught me a
lot of life lessons that I wouldn’t have learned otherwise,” he said.

Boccolucci posted the video on her Facebook page with the hope that viewers would be inspired to help
the couple by donating to their GiveForward fundraising campaign. 

“It is my hope that people will see the video, feel the love
this family shares, and help lift them up and make a donation if they are
able,” she told the Huffington Post.

Levon Robbie Wenk was born on September 18, 2016, at 2:12
a.m., a healthy 8 pounds, 8 ounces.

“We have all the love in the world around us right now,”
Wenk said as he and Li, with Levon in her arms, lay bed-to-bed holding hands after the birth.

But really, the video says it all.