| Posted By |
Message |
Shelly
She's 7!!!
Member since 8/05 14624 total posts
Name:
|
What a story!
With flames raging behind her, Bronx mom Tracinda Foxe held her newborn son out of her third-floor window yesterday, hoping to get air back into his tiny lungs, when she saw a crowd gathered below.
She prayed. And then Foxe did the only thing she thought she could do to save her son: She dropped him.
"I said, 'God, please save my son,' " said a weeping Foxe, 30. "I prayed that someone would catch him and save his life."
One-month-old Eric Guzman fell 30 feet through the frigid morning air - and, miraculously, landed safely in the arms of Felix Vazquez, a city Housing Authority supervisor.
"I didn't think - I just wanted to get him," said Vazquez, who, appropriately enough, is the catcher on the nearby Forest Houses baseball team. "I just reacted."
The grab was recorded by a surveillance camera.
Firefighters then rescued Foxe, who was reunited with her uninjured baby and later gave Vazquez a tearful hug of thanks.
The fire began at 8:30 a.m., minutes after Foxe returned to her Gouverneur Morris Houses apartment from dropping off her two older children - Raymond, 11, and Alexis, 9 - at school.
Cradling Eric in her arms, she drifted off to sleep only to awaken when acrid black smoke filled her apartment.
"I thought about running for the front door but I couldn't make it," she said. "I closed the [bedroom] door but then me and my baby were trapped."
Her only thought to save her child, Foxe squeezed the newborn through the window's metal guards so the screaming infant could gulp in fresh air.
Spotting the baby, Vazquez told some of his workers to run to the third floor to help while he and others hopped a fence and prepared to make a desperate catch.
Screaming "Save my son, save my son," Foxe dropped the child to Vazquez, who was standing like a football player poised to catch a punt.
"He wasn't crying, so I gave him mouth-to-mouth," said Vazquez, 39, a former lifeguard at Orchard Beach. "I felt like it was one of my own - I have three - and when he started crying, I felt even better."
Moments later, Firefighters D. J. Martin and Bobby Eustace of Ladder 27 burst into the apartment, found a hysterical Foxe and gave her an oxygen mask.
Mother and child were treated at Jacobi Medical Center and released.
Officials said the fire started in her kitchen and was considered an accident.
When Foxe returned to her burned-out home yesterday afternoon to collect some of Eric's singed clothes and toys, she spotted Vazquez, who was already back to work, and thanked him.
"It's going to be hard, since I've lost almost everything," said a choked-up Foxe, preparing to spend the night at a relative's home. "But most importantly, my baby is okay. I am so thankful
|
Posted 12/15/05 11:14 AM  |
| |
|
Long Island Weddings
Long Island's Largest Bridal Resource |
Redhead
You Live, You Learn
Member since 5/05 31871 total posts
Name:
Jennifer
|
Re: What a story!
OMG........
Miracles do happen
|
| Posted 12/15/05 11:15 AM |
| |
|
KPtoys
I'm getting old
Member since 5/05 8688 total posts
Name:
Karen
|
Re: What a story!
I saw the video. Amazing story!
|
| Posted 12/15/05 11:15 AM |
| |
|
DebG
Pick a cause & stand up for it
Member since 5/05 18602 total posts
Name:
The cure IS worse!
|
Re: What a story!
OMG what a story is right!!!
|
| Posted 12/15/05 11:16 AM |
| |
|
dpli
Daylight savings :)
Member since 5/05 13973 total posts
Name:
D
|
Re: What a story!
Holy Cow! Imagine making that decision - sit here and hold the baby, fearing that you both will die, or drop him out the window, and you might be responsible for killing him. I am so happy for this woman that her family is fine.
Reading something like this makes one put things in life in perspective.
|
| Posted 12/15/05 11:16 AM |
| |
|
Shelly
She's 7!!!
Member since 8/05 14624 total posts
Name:
|
Re: What a story!
Posted by dpli
Holy Cow! Imagine making that decision - sit here and hold the baby, fearing that you both will die, or drop him out the window, and you might be responsible for killing him. I am so happy for this woman that her family is fine.
Reading something like this makes one put things in life in perspective.
Exactly- that's why I posted it.
|
| Posted 12/15/05 11:17 AM |
| |
|
LAMGAJ28
.
Member since 10/05 6039 total posts
Name:
|
Re: What a story!
What a story.....is right!
What a decision to make....
|
| Posted 12/15/05 11:21 AM |
| |
|
GenLCSW
Baby # 3 is here!!!
Member since 7/05 21138 total posts
Name:
Genna
|
Re: What a story!
how amazing
|
| Posted 12/15/05 11:57 AM |
| |
|
LadyMaravilla
Fall Is Here
Member since 5/05 12023 total posts
Name:
Sonia
|
Re: What a story!
OMG!!!! What an amazing story! As a mother I would have saved my child. What a decision to have to make.
|
| Posted 12/15/05 12:07 PM |
| |
|
Shelly
She's 7!!!
Member since 8/05 14624 total posts
Name:
|
Re: What a story!
Go to MSN.com to see the video. ITs amazing!
|
| Posted 12/15/05 12:11 PM |
| |
|
LadyMaravilla
Fall Is Here
Member since 5/05 12023 total posts
Name:
Sonia
|
Re: What a story!
Posted by Shellyesq
Go to MSN.com to see the video. ITs amazing!
I can't my co. has restrictions on every E'fin site!!!! I'm amazed I can still be on LIF. LIW got taken away!
|
| Posted 12/15/05 12:15 PM |
| |
|
BabyAvocado
Happy New Year
Member since 5/05 17334 total posts
Name:
|
Re: What a story!
OMG... I saw the video! Amazing!
|
| Posted 12/15/05 12:15 PM |
| |
|
MrsJ
I love my Katie Bug
Member since 5/05 11357 total posts
Name:
Kathy
|
Re: What a story!
The video is on CNN toohttp://www.cnn.com/2005/US/12/15/baby.catch/index.html
|
| Posted 12/15/05 12:27 PM |
| |
|
FelAndJon
needs to update her avatar pic
Member since 6/05 10212 total posts
Name:
Felice (aka LuckyBride2004)
|
Re: What a story!
CNN has played in every half hour this morning. I am sitting in the reception area of my office and we have aHUGE tv out here. Everytime it has been on, I have gotten chills. I am just so glad baby and mom are OK!
|
| Posted 12/15/05 1:03 PM |
| |
|
