Leg-Saving Surgery Helps Santa From Brick Spread Cheer At Freehold Raceway Mall

BRICK, NJ — Ronald Fierro loves the Christmas season. He loves hearing from children what they're wishing for under the tree and making fun memories for children.

You may have seen him in action — at the mall or maybe at a private event — dressed in his red suit with his most jolly smile at the ready, because Fierro plays Santa Claus. It's a role he's deeply invested in; he's attended Santa school and he's even a member of the International Brotherhood of Real-Bearded Santas.

"I consider it a privilege to represent the Spirit of Christmas," said Fierro, 73, who lives in Brick.

Earlier this year, his joy of playing Santa was threatened when he developed a blister on his right foot that just wouldn't heal. The blister burst and turned into a painful ulcer and then an infection.

As he sat in the doctor's office, he noticed other patients who had suffered amputations, and looked at the infection that was turning his heel and toes black.

"I had resigned myself I was going to lose my leg," Fierro said.

Santa Ron — as he goes by on his business cards — found himself on the receiving end of a gift, however, when Dr. Nicholas Russo of Ocean University Medical Center was able to perform bypass surgery on his leg that averted an amputation.

"He saved my leg," Fierro said in a telephone interview, his gratitude clear from the emotion in his voice.

"I'm grateful to be back at work," he said as he prepared for a day at Freehold Raceway Mall, where he is listening to Christmas wishes and posing for photos. "I wouldn't miss it for the world."

Becoming Santa

Fierro's foray into the world of Santa Claus started while he was a high school English teacher in the East Orange Schools. He was asked one year if he would play Santa at a fundraiser organized by the East Orange Campus High's National Honor Society that was to benefit indigent children.

It went so well that he was asked to do it again the following year. Soon he was playing Santa at multiple schools in the district.

"They told me, 'You're really good at this.' I loved it," he said.

By the time he retired from the East Orange Schools after 26 years, he had been playing Santa for 12 years on a volunteer basis and loved it so much he decided to pursue it as his next profession.

"I went to Santa school," Fierro said, attending the International University of Santa Claus, the course on playing Santa created by Tim Connaghan. Connaghan is known as the National Santa, the official national Santa Claus of the U.S. Marine Corps Toys for Tots Foundation and who makes appearances at other large-scale events.

Graduates of Santa school become members of the Red Suit Society and there are yearly Santa conventions — not to be confused with the drunken "SantaCon" bashes that pop up in various cities each year — that Fierro always attends.

"I never drink (alcohol) while I'm in costume," he said.

Fierro also is a member of the International Brotherhood of Real-Bearded Santas, and takes pride in his beard.

And just like the scene in "Miracle on 34th Street," where Edmund Gwenn encourages a young Natalie Wood to pull on his beard and see how real it is, Fierro encourages children who come to see him to give it a tug.

"I'll hand it to them and say if you hold my beard and make a wish it will come true," Fierro said.

Seeing the wonder and smiles of children is one of the things he loves about being Santa Claus, though he admits it wasn't easy when his own children questioned whether Santa was real.

Fierro, who divorced when his children were young, said it happened when his daughter was 10 and his son was 9.

"I picked up the kids and my daughter asked," he said. "She said, 'There's a girl at school who says there's no Santa ... is it true?' " Fierro said. He broke the news to her as gently as possible, but she was dejected. "She asked, 'Is it true about the Easter Bunny too?' " he said with a chuckle.

It never deterred him from playing Santa, even for his family; Fierro said he has played Santa for his grandchildren — he has a granddaughter who is 6 and a grandson who's 3 — which has led to humorous moments of its own.

"When my granddaughter was 2 she cried like so many kids do" when they visit Santa, he said with a laugh. His grandson, meanwhile, saw Santa at a Breakfast with Santa event. "He looked at him and said, 'Grandpa?' "

Fierro's first professional Santa gig was with JC Penney's portrait studio, which developed when he went to get photos taken for business cards for his business entity, Santa Ron Fierro LLC.

"The photographer looked at me and said 'Santa!' " and he was quickly hired. Fierro spent time at 27 JC Penney stores from New Hampshire to Delaware, taking photos with hundreds of children and families.

He moved from JC Penney to Magical Encounters Photography Studio in Freehold, and traveled to various locations in New Jersey and North Carolina to play Santa. After doing that for a few years, Fierro decided he wanted to travel less, and went to work for Cherry Hill Programs, a company that provides Santa (and other holiday experiences) to more than 900 malls and stores around the United States.

Fierro was placed at Freehold Raceway Mall, and splits time with another man he referred to as "Santa Jack." The location is popular, he said; out of 950 locations where Cherry Hill Programs places Santas, Freehold Raceway Mall was fifth overall in 2023. "We're going to break records this year," he said.

"I have fun with the kids," Fierro said. "The kids are adorable, even the 2-year-olds" who are prone to fearful responses — which can, in turn, create iconic moments.

"I was out in Pennsylvania at a JC Penney studio and the parents put this little tyke on my lap," Fierro said. "He was having none of it."

The boy was so intent on getting away from Santa "he pushed himself up and ran toward the camera," Fierro said. "I played into it. He was crying and I pretended to be horrified."

What he found out afterward was it was the boy's first steps — and they were all caught on camera.

"That was their Christmas card that year," Fierro said.

Averting amputation

Fierro said it was excruciating pain that drove him to seek help when a blister-turned-ulcer on his right heel kept getting worse.

"It hurt," Fierro said. "It hurt a lot."

A trip to the emergency room resulted in a diagnosis of cellulitis, a common bacterial skin infection that can become serious if it is left untreated and spreads to the lymph nodes and bloodstream. It can lead to an amputation of the infected limb, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Initially Fierro was treated by Fred Rothberg, a podiatrist at Ocean University Medical Center, but when the wound care was not improving, Rothberg ordered an MRI to make sure the infection had not spread to Fierro's tibia, the main bone in the lower leg.

It had not, but Rothberg found the blood flow to Fierro's lower leg was inadequate, which was hampering the healing. That's when Rothberg referred him to the Dr. Robert H. and Mary Ellen Harris Heart and Vascular Center at Ocean University Medical Center, where he met with Russo.

By the time he met Fierro, the ulcer had been present on his foot for two months.

"One in four diabetics will lose a limb if they get a wound that does not heal," Russo said.

After a brief delay while Fierro attended the Santa convention, Russo performed an angiogram on Fierro's legs. It showed that while he had a good pulse in both arms and his left leg, his right leg was "flatlined," with no real pulse.

"From his knee down he had severe arterial disease," Russo said. Fierro also had severe tibial disease.

Fierro said he told the doctors that stents had not worked when a cardiologist found he had two badly blocked arteries in his heart.

"The widowmaker was 100 percent blocked and the second (artery) was 99 percent," Fierro said.

Fierro's leg "was not amenable to non-invasive treatment," Russo said, so they performed a pedal bypass, the name of which reflects that it involves the leg or foot. It's similar to heart bypass surgery, where a vein taken from elsewhere in the body is used to create a pathway between healthy portions of an artery, bypassing the diseased portion.

Unlike a heart bypass, which typically covers a very short distance around a blockage, Fierro's pedal bypass covered a much longer distance.

"In Ron’s case he didn’t have any good arteries in his lower leg," Russo said, so the bypass went from above his knee to his foot — using 24 inches of Fierro's greater saphenous vein.

"I had staples and sutures from my groin to my heel," Fierro said.

"Every bypass is unique," Russo said, and there are numerous ways to do it. Some use a prosthetic material, sometimes they use other veins or arteries. When a vein or artery is used, Russo said, the body works around the portion that is removed.

"It creates collateral pathways that develop when they're needed" to return blood pumped to the extremities to the heart. "The body itself is pretty amazing in that it can deal with a lot."

It can cause some swelling afterward, but Russo said compression socks are usually sufficient to treat the swelling.

Fierro's surgery was performed in June and took about three hours, much shorter than the usual six to eight hours, Russo said. Then the hard work — Fierro's hard work — began. Fierro had to lose weight and focus on managing his diabetes as he worked through his rehabilitation.

"It was months of rehab at Willow Springs," a rehab and care facility in Brick, Fierro said, adding that it was months before he was able to drive. By September, he had healed enough to return to work just in time for the holiday season — his Santa season. He is working in the evenings, and playing Santa at some private events. He also is mentoring some younger Santas, sharing his philosophy and his ways of dealing with children of all ages.

Fierro uses a walking stick, and he said his stamina is still improving, but added "I can’t tell you how grateful I am to be back at work. It's a blessing."

Russo, who recently brought his wife and their newborn to meet Fierro, praised his patient.

"Ron did the hard work to heal," Russo said. "He literally held my son and was walking around like a normal person. That’s the best compliment as a surgeon."

"Having that wound in Ron’s scenario, it's a 30 percent chance of losing his leg at one year," Russo said. "With the wound healed, he has to stay on top of it, kind of like a car with 100,000 miles on it."

Fierro knows he is lucky to able to walk around and spread Christmas joy and remind people of what he feels is the most important piece of the Christmas season: the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.

He's always mindful, however, that Santa brings a special piece of magic to the season, especially for young children.

"Even when you’re not trying to be (Santa), when a 5-year-old on Mom’s shoulder sees you and says, 'Santa,' and Mom turns around and smiles, it's a great feeling," Fierro said.

"I’ve been blessed and I know it. I’m grateful for the extra time God gave me," he said.