Police Officer Valiantly Saves Tiny Baby Girl – Twenty Years Later He Is Guest of Honor At Her Wedding

Nov 25, 2020 by apost team

In this touching story, New York police captain Joseph Barca saved the life of a little baby girl all the way back in 1993 and has remained an important part of the family for the last two decades — so much so that in 2014, he was the guest of honor at the wedding of the young woman whose life he had saved. 

Captain Joseph Barca is a hero in many ways. He had been on the Yonkers, New York police force for almost 45 years back in 2014 and had saved at least a dozen lives over his tenure at the police force. He had also helped to rescue victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, reports CBS News. While he has dramatically changed lives during his career, one of the most important calls he would attend to came in 1993.

On December 28, 1993, he arrived at the doorstep of distressed parents who had called emergency services because their 2-month-old daughter, Shammarah Hamideh, had stopped breathing. Shammarah Hamideh's older brothers Ahmad and Ali Hamideh recall that day and remember the details vividly. "I remember my mother yelling from the top of her lungs for my father: 'Shama! Shama! Shama! She is not breathing, she's choking!' Lifeless," brother Ahmad Hamideh said.

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Then-Sgt. Joseph Barca was first on the scene. "I took the child from the parents and checked for vital signs. Found none," Barca said, according to CBS News. "I jumped into the backseat of the car with the baby, still doing CPR for the ride to the hospital."

“As we were approaching the hospital, I could feel the baby starting to come back to life,” said Barca as per CBS New York. “Any time you can save a life it’s a great feeling, but this was very crucially a little 2-month-old baby.”

When they finally arrived at the hospital, her throat had been cleared, her heart was beating again, and she was breathing on her own. "Her dad expected to hear the worst from me," Sgt. Barca added. "And I said to him, 'Do you hear that baby crying?' And he said 'Yeah.' And I said, 'That's your baby crying', and he just broke down from there."

Ever since he saved Hamideh, Sgt. Barca was embraced as part of the family. “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.” Sgt. Barca certainly treats Shammarah as his own daughter, reports CBS News.

"Every year they have never missed my birthday," Hamideh shared. "And for Christmas they always send a card and a check and a letter. They're just so sweet. It's the thought that counts really." When Sgt. Barca was invited to Hamideh's wedding, he just knew he had to attend. "I said, 'Not my little baby! Of course I'll be there,'" Sgt. Barca told CBS News.

The entire Hamideh family was in high spirits when they got to know that Barca was going to join them. "They love him. They're excited to see him," Hamideh said. "Everybody couldn't wait for this day just so they could see him and his wife Helen."

The family reunited with Sgt. Barca in Chicago in 2014 over a weekend to celebrate the wedding with family. "The feeling is just as excited as if it was one of my own sons. But being that she's a little girl, I'm sure there's going to be some tears being shed that day," Sgt. Barca told News 12.

Since he was Hamideh's second father, he had the honor of walking her down the aisle on her wedding day. For everybody in the family, it was an emotional day. For Sgt. Barca, saving Hamideh's life has been a life-changing, career-defining experience. "This one ranks up on top, and I go out there for a reason, and the reason is to help people," Barca said to CBS News. 

He has also been an inspiration to Hamideh, who shared that she too would like to save people's lives just like Sgt. Barca. "Maybe I can be in someone's life in twenty years later, just as he was," she says. She may have many opportunities to do so as she graduated from nursing school in 2014. 

What did you think of the beautiful bond between Sgt. Joseph Barca and the Hamideh family? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to share this with your friends! You may just make their day with this heartwarming story.