A Yonkers police captain will be a guest at the wedding of a woman whose life he saved more than 20 years ago, when she was an infant.
Capt. Joseph Barca will attend the wedding of Shammarah Hamideh Sunday outside Chicago. Barca saved Hamideh's life when she was two months old on Dec. 28, 1993, by giving her CPR while responding to a call at her home in Yonkers.
Barca recalled finding the girl limp and her father distraught when he arrived at their home. He hit her back until he cleared an obstruction from her throat, and the girl was breathing on her own by the time she headed to the hospital.
"I was ecstatic that I was able to save this young lady," Barca said.
Barca and Hamideh formed a life-long friendship. He sends her a birthday card every year, and the now-20-year-old woman said she headed to nursing school so she could help save others as Barca saved her.
"The father said to me, 'I gave her life the first time, you gave her life the second time; you're her American father,'" Barca said.
Barca -- who has three adult children of his own -- said he also sees Hamideh as a daughter. And he gave a warning for her fiance, truck driver Mohammed Salah.
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"I said, 'You got her father, and you got me to deal with if you don't treat this girl right."
