It’s not everyday you save someone’s life, and this police officer was never far from the family’s side following the events on December 28th, 1993.
It was this date that Joseph Barca, a sergeant on the Yonkers police force, got a phone call alerting him that a baby had stopped breathing. Mahmoud Hamideh had tried resuscitating the child but found her unresponsive.
Barca arrived at the apartment address on Linden Street to find the father holding his lifeless two month old daughter in his arms.
Talking to the Journal News about the scene, Barca, now a police captain in the same department said:
‘After taking the baby from her father, Mahmoud Hamideh, [Barca] began resuscitation — but knew after two breaths the air wasn’t getting to her lungs. Barca flipped the baby over, and hit her back three or four times sharply. Out flew a wad of mucous. Barca began breathing into the girl’s mouth and nose again, and kept her blood flowing by pumping two fingers into her chest. A radio car arrived and sped the two to St. Joseph’s Hospital.’
According to Jezebel, Barca said the baby was breathing on her own when she got to the ER. When her father showed up, the cop gave him the good news.
“I said, ‘You hear that baby crying? That’s yours.’ Then he started crying.”
Shammarah Hamideh, now a 20-year-old nursing student, is due to get married next month, and both Barca and his wife Helen will be amongst the attendees on the big day.
Since then, Barca has routinely kept in touch with the family, with Shammarah telling Journal News:
“Every year on my birthday, he sends me a birthday card and cheque. They treat me like I’m their daughter.”
Images via Jezebel
