By Dave Andrusko

"But even in this day and age, medicine can't explain everything."
     -- Diane Sawyer, Good Morning America.

Editor's note. Before I forget, let me thank you for the barrage of wonderful words about the New Year's Eve edition of TN&V. But because of the timing, many people may not have seen it. We have re-printed that edition as Part Three.

Mike, Tracy, and Coltyn Hermanstorfer

Technically, last Friday's edition was the first TN&V for 2010. But since it was written in advance of the holiday, today's story about the "Christmas miracle" surrounding Tracey Hermanstorfer and the birth of her son Coltyn, better qualifies as the kind of feel-good story that ought to inaugurate the new year.

You've probably heard about Mike and Tracey and Coltyn, but if you haven't, you are in for a treat. Mike and Tracy were already the parents of two boys, and Tracy was due to give birth January 5.

But her water broke Christmas Eve, still no reason for concern. However, within a minute of the time the couple arrived at the hospital, Tracy inexplicably went into cardiac arrest. Frantic doctors tried to revive her but to no avail.

"She was dead, she had no heartbeat, no breathing," Stephanie Martin, D.O., director of maternal fetal medicine at Memorial Hospital, told KKTV in Colorado Springs, Colorado. "She was as gray as her sweat suit, no signs of life."

"I sat there with my wife's hand in mine, ice cold," said Mike. "She was completely and totally blue." He told News 11, "Half of my family was laying there in front of me, there's no other way to say it, but dead."

Fearing a double tragedy, the doctors turned their attention to the baby. Delivered by emergency c-section Coltyn was born "limp" and "completely lifeless."

That's when the family's Christmas miracle began. "Mrs. Hermanstorfer's pulse returned even before she was wheeled out of the room and into the operating theatre," according to the Associated Press. Meanwhile Coltyn was handed to Mike as doctors worked feverishly to save the baby. Soon Coltyn began to breath.

"His life began in my hands," the father told Good Morning America. "That's a feeling like none other. Life actually began in the palm of my hands."

Mr. Hermanstorfer told the Associated Press, "I had everything in the world taken from me, and in an hour and a half I had everything given to me."

Mother and baby went home December 28. Both Tracey and Coltyn are doing fine, according to all the reports. Doctors have no explanation for why Tracey went into cardiac arrest or why mother and child have recovered so quickly. Tracey was without a heartbeat for about four minutes, according to the Associated Press.

"We are both believers . . . but this right here, even a nonbeliever -- you explain to me how this happened," Mr. Hermanstorfer told the British publication, the Mirror. "There is no other explanation."

You can watch Diane Sawyer's lovely account at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k77NAQ2qy0 and CBS's fine story at www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/30/health/main6036883.shtml

Part Two
Part Three