MOUNT SINAI, N.Y. – A Long Island, New York, police officer who helped a distressed newborn baby take his first breath has been selected as the child's godfather.
Bryce Pappalardo's parents say it's the perfect way to keep Jon-Erik Negron in their son's life after the officer's quick thinking cleared the boy's clogged airway.
Jane and Mike Pappalardo say they consider the 4½-year Suffolk County police veteran part of their family and felt he was already the boy's godfather before they asked.
Negron formally received the honor at the boy's June christening.
Bryce arrived unexpectedly last August at home in Mount Sinai with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck. He still couldn't breathe after it was removed.
That's when Negron took a plastic syringe from the family's kitchen and cleared fluid from Bryce's airway.
