Baby Breathes Again

Five-and-a-half minutes can feel like five hours when a baby isn’t breathing.  That’s exactly what happened on Thanksgiving on President Street, in Park Slope, Brooklyn, when 8-month-old Josiah Alexis stopped breathing and firefighters failed to find a heartbeat.  Seconds before getting to six minutes, in a small FDNY ambulance came the sounds they so desperately joyously received: a pulse was found along with a small cough.  Firefighter Neil Malone said simply, “it was the best Thanksgiving I ever had.”  The little boy is not yet out of the woods, but the situation looks good.

Fire Precautions

Clearly fire safety precautions were not taken.  A cigarette ended up touching a mattress which set off the blaze.  In an attempt to save the situation, people were trying to drag it out.  But what happened instead was that a huge puff of heat and smoke ended up trapping them. A woman who was trying to go back inside was screaming, “my baby is inside” and the firefighter grabbed her (she was bleeding) and then went inside to retrieve the baby who was limp and in cardiac arrest.

It really was an incredible miracle tale and a wonderful end to Thanksgiving, that everyone survived.