Four Miracles

Would three preemies live while surgeons raced to save their mom?

Excruciating Pain

The birthday party in the hospital cafeteria seemed like nothing out of the ordinary, with colorful balloons and a big vanilla-iced cake with pink and blue letters that announced, "Happy First Birthday!" But for the Errante triplets, being born at all was a miracle. The proud parents, Roseann and Joe Errante, both 37, counted their blessings: Samantha, the designated "gang leader" who fought so hard to make it into this world; Michael, known for flirting with the doctors and nurses who had worked tirelessly to save his life; and Joseph, the quiet one, who took everything in with his solemn, dark eyes.

The Errante triplets were something of a miracle right from the start. Roseann, a stay-at-home mom, and Joe, a public school custodian in West Babylon, New York, had longed for a second child after their son Anthony was born. But they had almost given up hope after two years of trying to get pregnant and a devastating miscarriage. "When we first found out I was pregnant, we didn't want to get too excited because so many things can go wrong with triplets," Roseann explains. "After three months of everything going smoothly -- not even morning sickness -- it hit us that we had a lot to do to prepare for three babies, and we'd better get started."

Roseann and Joe both come from big Italian families, and everyone wanted to pitch in to prepare for the babies. Roseann recalls many mother-daughter trips to Babies "R" Us. She was having the kind of glowing pregnancy most women dream about. But that was about to change.

One night in August 2005, when she was seven months along, Roseann shot up in bed at 3 a.m. and clutched her chest. Excruciating pain radiated up through her neck, ears and head. "One minute, I was sound asleep," she says, "and the next, I was jumping out of bed with pain so bad, I couldn't speak. On a scale of one to ten, this pain was a fifteen. I was scared for my babies and for myself."

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