When the doctor told us it was a boy, we were ecstatic. My wife, Wanette, and I had cherished the arrival of our two beautiful daughters. Now we had wanted a son. And he had come. We named him Matthew (meaning "a gift from God") Peter William-the double middle name was an heirloom of my family for four generations.

Following the doctor's routine check of our son's moving parts, we were allowed to take him back with us to the postpartum room. He nursed vigorously from his mother and we admired him with pride. He was beautiful! With joy we shared the news of his arrival with family and friends until fatigue finally caught up with us. It was 3 A.M. and I prepared to return home.

Five hours later the phone rang. It was Wanette. Something was wrong with Matthew, she said shakily. An hour earlier the attending nurse had noticed Matthew's color was not good. The doctors had quickly examined him and diagnosed the problem as either pneumonia or fetal heart circulation-a condition where the heart ...