Mother and child restored to life - Amazing Story

**Miaow** · 31-12-2009 12:39

Saw this on TV this morning Amazing story - Miracle they are both ok ...

Mother and child restored to life

DAN ELLIOTT, DENVER

December 31, 2009

MIKE Hermanstorfer was clutching his pregnant wife's hand when her life slipped away in a Colorado hospital on Christmas Eve. Moments later he cradled his newborn son's limp body after a medical team delivered the baby by caesarean section.
In a few minutes his son would begin to breathe again under the feverish attention of doctors, and soon he learned his wife had also inexplicably come back to life.
''My legs went out from underneath me,'' Mr Hermanstorfer said. ''I had everything in the world taken from me, and in an hour and a half I had everything given to me.''
Mr Hermanstorfer's wife, Tracy, went into cardiac arrest and stopped breathing during labor last Thursday, said Dr Stephanie Martin, a maternal foetal specialist at Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs, where the Hermanstorfers had gone for the birth of their son.
''She had no signs of life. No heartbeat, no blood pressure, she wasn't breathing,'' said Dr Martin, who had rushed to Mrs Hermanstorfer's room to help. ''The baby was basically limp, with a very slow heart rate.''
Both mother and baby, named Coltyn, now appear healthy, Dr Martin said. She could not explain the mother's cardiac arrest or the recovery.
''We did a thorough evaluation and can't find anything that explains why this happened,'' Dr Martin said.
But Mr Hermanstorfer credits ''the hand of God''.
''We are both believers … but this right here, even a nonbeliever - you explain to me how this happened? There is no other explanation,'' he said.
Tracy Hermanstorfer, 33, was preparing for childbirth at the hospital last Thursday morning and her 37-year-old husband was by her side when she began to feel sleepy and lay back in her bed.
''She literally stopped breathing and her heart stopped,'' her husband said.
Pandemonium erupted as doctors and nurses tried to revive her with chest compressions and a breathing tube.
''I was holding her hand when we realised she was gone,'' Mr Hermanstorfer said. ''My entire life just rolled out.''
Doctors told him they needed to switch their attention from his wife and quickly remove his son. After the caesarean section, some of the team rushed his wife to the operating room while the others attended to Coltyn.
''They hand him to me, he's absolutely lifeless,'' Mr Hermanstorfer said.
The doctors went to work on Coltyn as his father held him, and soon he began to breathe.
Dr Martin estimates Mrs Hermanstorfer had no heartbeat for about four minutes.
Friends have asked Mrs Hermanstorfer if she saw a light or had experiences described by others who had survived near-death experiences. She didn't.
''I just felt like I was asleep,'' she said.

http://www.theage.com.au/world/mothe...1230-ljup.html

Another Article with a little more info and a video
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34625348...-heart_health/

**Kattus** · 31-12-2009 12:43

Oh my goodness. It certainly is a miracle they are both ok now. I cant imagine how horrible that would have been for the husband

**Miaow** · 31-12-2009 12:49

Yes agree the poor husband going throught that - as he said to have it all taken away and then to get it all back...

They were saying on the TV show this morning that pretty much as soon as they got the baby out the mother came back to life - A Christmas Miracle really...

**~Temet Nosce~** · 03-01-2010 10:26

I was just about to post this- it's pretty amazing.

**Phyllis Stein** · 03-01-2010 11:35

There was no miracle, just a media beat up to maximise views.

Apparently, the surgeons simply did exactly what is advised in such cases - empty the uterus, which relieves pressure on the circulatory system and allows resus to continue with a higher chance of success. Read here.

**~Temet Nosce~** · 03-01-2010 11:40

meh I still think it's amazing. Never did think it was a miraculous act of god though. Let them believe what they want, what does it matter to you?

**anewme** · 03-01-2010 11:42

What a wonderful miracle.

**Pippi Longstocking** · 03-01-2010 11:46

Originally Posted by Phyllis Stein

There was no miracle, just a media beat up to maximise views.

Apparently, the surgeons simply did exactly what is advised in such cases - empty the uterus, which relieves pressure on the circulatory system and allows resus to continue with a higher chance of success. Read here.

From what I've read, it's far from a miracle. It seems that the woman went into cardiac arrest as a result of an epidural - one of the (thankfully rare) potential risks.

Typical freakin' media. Never let the facts get in the way of a good Christmas miracle story eh?!

**~Temet Nosce~** · 03-01-2010 11:49

God some people are such pessimists. Don't bother being glad that mother and baby survived, just jump on the fact that the media changed the story and it was from an epidural