Yonkers Police Captain To Attend Wedding For Woman He Saved As Baby
YONKERS, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A Yonkers police captain credited with saving the life of a baby girl nearly 20 years ago is now headed to the woman's wedding.
On Dec. 28, 1993, 2-month-old Shammah Hamideh stopped breathing. First on the scene in Yonkers was then-Sgt. Joseph Barca, who cleared mucus from the child's airway and performed CPR, 1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria reported.
"As we were approaching the hospital, I could feel the baby starting to come back to life," said, Barca, who is now a police captain. "Any time you can save a life it's a great feeling, but this was very crucially a little 2-month-old baby."
Barca told 1010 WINS he's been treated as part of the Hamideh family ever since.
"Her father over the years has always referred to me as her American dad. The family is Palestinian," Barca said. "He said he gave her life the first time, and I gave her life the second time."
Now, Hamideh is 20 years old and about to tie the knot.
So when the wedding invites were being planned, Barca said they asked him if he could attend the wedding in Chicago and he arranged his vacation so that he could go.
"I was able to schedule vacation around it, and I'm going up to Chicago next week," the police captain said.
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