Exclusive | NJ mall Santa celebrates successful surgery that saved his right leg: Truly a Christmas miracle

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 ha...