A Christmas miracle: Mother, baby revived during birth

(NECN/ABC: Colorado Springs, Colo.) - Some call it a holiday miracle -- a Colorado mother and her baby boy both died during labor, but the medical team was able to bring both back to life. His was supposed to be a routine birth. Tracey Hermanstorfer's water broke on Christmas Eve, so she arrived with her husband at a Colorado Springs hospital to deliver the couple's third son. Then something went terribly wrong. "About 35 seconds after I arrived in the room, she went into cardiac arrest and we started immediate preparations for cesarean section in the room," Dr. Stephanie Martin of Memorial Hospital said. As surgeons raced to save the mother and extract the baby, Tracey's husband held his wife's hand, stunned. "Half my family was lying right there in front of me, in my hands, there's no other way to say it, but dead," Mike Hermanstorfer said. From there, things got worse. Doctors performed the emergency c-section, pulling the baby boy from the mother. "Immediately after delivering him, he was completely limp and unresponsive," Dr. Martin said. Both mother and child seemingly gone. That was when family, and even doctors, say something extraordinary happened. "Immediately after delivering him, her pulse came back," Dr. Martin said. But that's not where this story ends. The medical team worked to save the boy, too. "They actually got him started in my hands, so that was an amazing feeling," Mr. Hermanstorfer said. "Someone upstairs is looking after me and saying it isn't time for me to be gone," Mrs. Hermanstorfer said. "We were never able to fully understand what happened, but we will take it," Dr. Martin said. Though baby Coltyn's father said the explanation for his wife and son's revival and survival is simple: he calls it a Christmas miracle. ABC's Mark Mullen reports.