Heroic medics reunited with the child they saved

Heroic medics reunited with the child they saved
Two of the three medics who helped save a baby from a burning house reunited with the little girl Monday.
BY ADAM H. BEASLEY
abeasley@MiamiHerald.com
A week ago Sunday, paramedic Anthony Busk clutched little Kaniyah Allen in his arms as he pulled the 10-month-old baby out of a burning Lauderhill home.

Eight days later, Kaniyah wouldn't let her hero go.

Alert, happy and almost fully recovered, she clutched Busk tightly -- and even smiled -- as the two met in her Plantation General Hospital room Monday morning.

It was the first time Busk and Santo Agosta, the paramedic who performed mouth-to-mouth on Kaniyah, had seen the infant since the nearly fatal early-morning fire.

''It's wonderful to see the mother being able to hold her child,'' said Busk, who got choked up a couple of times during the emotional reunion. ``This is why we're [firefighters]. We wouldn't do anything else.''

Even after last week's rescue, in which Busk and Jacob Marchese pulled Kaniyah from a burning room and Agosta resuscitated her, there was considerable doubt that this meeting would ever happen.

Two days after the fire, in which Kaniyah suffered smoke inhalation, she had a serious setback. She suffered a stroke and a seizure in Publix, where her mother, Monisha Pierre, was picking up groceries.

She has been hospitalized ever since, although her doctor, Raul Ponte, said she should make a full recovery and will likely be able to leave soon.
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