NYPD rookie revives baby
Ma took lifeless girl to precinct
A distraught mom ran into a Queens police precinct clutching her 20-monthold girl, desperately looking for an angel in blue.
She found Osvaldo Nuñez, a 22-yearold officer who had just graduated the Police Academy four weeks ago.
With the unflappable focus of a veteran, the rookie cop saved the little girl’s life.
The young officer recalled he was standing in front of the 115th Precinct stationhouse in Jackson Heights on Monday at 9 p.m., a couple of hours remaining on his shift, when 26-year-old Rebeca Alarcon came rushing toward him, little Leah lifeless in her arms.
“My daughter’s not breathing, my daughter’s not breathing!” Alarcon told him.
Nuñez ran to meet her and saw Leah unconscious with no pulse.
“I immediately ran through the double door, placed the baby on a little stool we had there, and I immediately got to the chest compressions,” he said. “Once I saw the baby was unresponsive, I just locked in, I got into the zone.”
His first round of compressions didn’t work, but when he started up a second time, Leah opened her eyes.
“After that, the baby was just there with us. I lifted her up,” he said. “I made sure she had nothing in her mouth .... After that, I brought her over to my shoulder, she seemed brand-new like she is now.”
Medics rushed her to Elmhurst Hospital Center, where she was treated and released. Police sources said the tot had suffered prior seizures, and it’s believed that’s what happened on Monday. She had been hospitalized with a fever earlier in the day, sources said.
“I’m really thankful — and blessed at the same time,” Alarcon told the Daily News. “I owe him a lot. He saved my daughter’s life. God bless him all the time.”
Alarcon, who lives near the stationhouse, said she realized something was wrong when Leah’s dad came home and the tot didn’t run to greet him.
“She just stood there and spazzed out,” Alarcon recalled. “Her father was like, ‘Rebeca, Leah is not answering.’”
Alarcon tried CPR, then ran outside and knocked on a neighbor’s door. Her next instinct was to run to the precinct, where she found Nuñez .
“This is the reason why I took the job,” said Nuñez, who hopes to one day earn a detective’s shield. “I like to help out the community. It’s something that I always wanted to do, and I’m very happy that it ended well.”
He also earned accolades from his commanding officer, Deputy Inspector Carlos Ortiz. “He took it upon himself, ran out there, grabbed her, brought her in here,” Ortiz said. “I couldn’t ask more from an officer, especially an officer with one month on the job,” he added. “He has 19 more years of impressing us. He has a very good career ahead of him. He knows what it means to be an officer.”