Leonardo Munoz
Santa’s got a brand new leg.
A professional NJ mall Santa almost lost his leg, but is healing in time for the holidays.
“I still get choked up. They saved my leg. I am very, very grateful,” Ronald Fierro told The Post.
The Kris Kringle doppelganger and retired high school teacher from Paterson, NJ, had a painful wound that wouldn’t heal, so he visited a vascular doctor.
“They did tests and determined that three of my limbs had a pulse, but my right leg was a flatline. There was no blood flow. My toes and heel were turning black and I started to realize I could possibly lose my leg,” said Fierro, 73, who suffers from diabetes.
In June, he underwent a surgery called pedal bypass at Ocean University Medical Center, where a vein from his thigh was placed in his lower leg.
“He had about a 1 in 3 chance of losing his leg if he did nothing,” said his surgeon, Dr. Nicholas Russo.
“Given Ron’s medical conditions, the infection of his wound and the severity of his peripheral arterial disease, it is truly a Christmas miracle that he is bringing Christmas to life again this year for so many children.”
Russo wasn’t aware his patient played Mr. Claus at first.
“He literally looks like Santa, but I didn’t know until the girls from scheduling told me he postponed his angiogram because he wanted to go to a Santa convention,” Russo said, laughing.
Fierro started physical therapy — with the goal of being healthy enough in time to bounce kids on his knee as the beloved Freehold Raceway Mall Santa Claus.
“I don’t play Santa. I am Santa,” he said.
Fierro first portrayed the big man when he was working at East Orange High School, and was called upon to play Santa at their National Honor Society tree lighting.
Word spread and he was asked to suit up at other schools in the district, and a new career was born.
“Eight years ago, when I retired, I went to Santa School,” he explained of his time taking classes in Tampa, Florida, at School4Santas, which has locations around the nation.
At School4Santas, the world’s largest Santa school, he was trained on things like beard maintenance and how to deal with a frightened child.
“There are kids deathly afraid. It’s almost guaranteed. Some of them are fighting for their lives,” he said.
“They’re all so excited, then they come close and freak out. Even my own granddaughter, at 2 years old, didn’t realize I was Santa, and cried.”
Another time, “a couple put their little boy by my boots. . . . He gets up and runs. They went crazy because it was the first time he ever walked,” he recalled, laughing.
A member of the International Brotherhood of Real Bearded Santas, the world’s largest organization of professional Santas, Fierro also reads up on the history of St. Nicholas, the third-century bishop on which Santa is based.
“A lot of people don’t realize he was a bishop and he took a vow of poverty. And he came from a rich family,” he explained.
Fierro, who is working double shifts this Christmas as his counterpart at the mall sprained his ankle, listed the most popular toys on kids’ wish lists this season: “The Barbie Dreamhouse is requested very often,” he said. “Pokemon Go, Spider-Man has been very popular … and lots of dinosaurs.”