Man was devastated when doctor told him his wife and baby died during childbirth — then a 'miracle' happened in OR

Christmas Eve is a joyful occasion for many families. Similarly, for Mike and Tracy Hermanstorfer, it was supposed to be such an event, welcoming their third child into the world. They arrived at Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs in 2009, expecting a routine delivery, just like the ones before. Instead, Mike faced his worst nightmare—losing both his wife and newborn son in front of his eyes. First, without warning, Tracy went into cardiac arrest, as per CBS 11 News. He said, "They were changing monitors at that point in time, and in the middle of changing monitors, she stopped breathing." 

"She was dead. She had no heartbeat, no breathing. She was as gray as her sweatsuit, no signs of life," said Dr. Stephanie Martin, director of fetal medicine at Memorial Hospital, reported CBS News. Doctors tried to revive her, but after several failed attempts, they gave up. "I sat there with my wife’s hand in mine, ice cold. She was completely and totally blue," Mike said. The medical team decided to perform an emergency C-section right there, without anesthesia. But when they delivered the baby, they realized he wasn't breathing either. "I was waiting to hear a baby cry. I was waiting for it and I never did hear it," Mike recalled. He held his lifeless son as doctors fought to get him breathing.

"Half of my family was lying there right in front of me—there's no other way to say it—dead," Mike said, per ABC News. But then, the unthinkable happened. "When they roll her away, take her down to the operating room just to finish up the procedure from doing the C-section... her heart starts beating," Mike recalled. Just as Tracy’s pulse returned, doctors worked to resuscitate baby Coltyn. "When he took his very first breath, he was in my hands," Mike said.

Within minutes, both mother and baby were alive. Doctors had no medical explanation for what happened. "They were getting ready to put a catheter in and I closed my eyes and don't remember anything after that," Tracey said. She had been warned that if both mother and baby somehow survived, there would likely be severe complications. "You know, getting told when this does happen, at least maybe one comes back. If two come back, they have a lot of medical problems, you know—they’re not the same. A lot of times, they talk about how the mom could be a vegetable, stuff like that. So to know that I’m breathing, talking and kind of back to normal—it’s awesome."

In an update shared seven years later, Tracy and Coltyn were happy, healthy and thriving. Coltyn even found a way to make the most of his "miracle baby" status. Tracy said, "He's like, 'I'm the miracle baby,'—he tries to get out of chores with that—'but I'm the miracle baby,' and I look at him, 'I'm the miracle mom. It’s not working.'" For Mike, this experience changed everything. "You look at him right now, you'd never know there was ever anything to sit back and remember that day," he said. Also, Mike said he shared their story because he wanted people to believe in hope and miracles. "The only reason I do the interviews is because I want people out there that ever have second thoughts or ever have doubts about anything to realize that miracles do happen. Don’t ever give up."