Click here for Greater Long Island newsletters. Click here to download the iPhone app.
It’s been five months since Mike Papallardo delivered his own baby boy from his wife on their kitchen floor in Mt. Sinai — a delivery that was fraught with peril.
They say they couldn’t have done it without the help of Suffolk County first responders.
It was around 1 a.m. on Aug. 22 when Jane unsuspectingly went into labor. Her husband quickly called 911. But that call got disconnected.
Moments later, SCPD Public Safety dispatcher Jonathan Eck called back and looped Fire Rescue and Emergency Services dispatcher Steve Platz in on the call.
From there, Platz walked Mike step-by-step through delivering their baby boy, Bryce.
“Dispatcher Platz you were the calm during our storm,” Mike said at a special event Thursday in Yaphank that reunited everyone involved. “Without you I don’t think we could deliver properly,” Mike said.
Bryce, who was born at 1:19 a.m, wasn’t breathing upon coming out of the womb. The umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck. But miraculously., Suffolk County Sixth Precinct officers Jon-Erik Negron and Ferdinando Crasa had just arrived on the scene.
“I grabbed [Negron] and said ‘What are we going to do?'”Mike recalled.
Dad removed the cord while Negron grabbed a plastic syringe from the Papallardos’ cabinet and shot oxygen down into the baby’s lungs to clear a pathway as the cord was removed.
After about 90 seconds of not breathing, Bryce took his first breath.
Today, he is a young and happy baby, says the Papallardos, who also have a 2-year-old daughter.
“It just shows how hard we work to make sure situations like this have a happy ending,” said Negron.
The reunion was held at Suffolk County Police Department Headquarters, where the Papallardos got the opportunity to greet the first responders for the first time since their son’s eventful birth.
“I think if [the officers] weren’t there that minute, what would happen?” Mike said as tears welled in his eyes. “So that’s that part that gets me upset, because I know they did an amazing job.”
“This whole county came together to save this baby’s life, so thank you,” he added.
Top: Officer Jon-Erik Negron holding a healthy Bryce Papallardo. (Credit: Nicholas Esposito)
