Friday, October 2, 2026
“They are our angels,” said Stephanie Gagliardi, referring to Lynbrook police officer Steve Takas and former Capt. Richard Straub, who helped to save the life of her 1-year-old son, Justin, after he suffered a seizure on Sept. 2. Both were honored at a recent village board meeting.
Among the night’s other honorees were members of the village Fire Department, including former Capt. Tracey LaBarbara and Lynn Curtis of the Emergency Medical Company, First Assistant Chief Anthony DeCarlo of Tally Ho, and Michael Kenny of Engine Company.
Takas’s and Straub’s actions changed Justin Gagliardi’s life. It was a Friday that started out like any other day. Stephanie, an Oceanside mother of four boys, had planned to host a play date for her older children and their friends at her home on Sept. 2. She had dropped Justin off at her mother’s home in Lynbrook. Little did she know what would happen.
“I called my mom,” Gagliardi recalled, “and my mom said that Justin was having seizures. I dropped everything and ran over there.” When she got there, she said, Justin was not responsive — and she was terrified. “I felt like I was losing my baby,” she said.
She called 911, and Takas and Straub arrived just moments after the call. Straub said that all he could hear was screaming. Both men grabbed Justin, jumped into a police car and headed to South Nassau Communities Hospital.
“We notified the desk that Justin was unconscious and not breathing,” Straub recounted. He had to keep Justin’s head from hitting the car’s partition while sitting in the back seat, he said, before they arrived at the emergency room.
Justin underwent a CT scan and other tests during an overnight hospital stay, suffering through a few seizures, which were the result of an ear infection, Stephanie Gagliardi said. Just a few days after the incident, Straub and his wife dropped off some toys for Justin, who, upon seeing Straub, jumped into his rescuer’s arms.
Justin’s grandparents, Lorraine and Richard Walukanis, sent a letter to Lynbrook Mayor Bill Hendrick about Takas’s and Straub’s heroic actions. “Their respective departments must be very proud to have men such as this serving their departments,” the couple wrote. “My family and I are extremely grateful for the competency and urgency of these professionals.”
Lorraine Walukanis, along with her mother, Carmela Barbuto, attended the board meeting on behalf of Stephanie and Anthony Gagliardi, Justin’s parents.
Justin is now doing great, thanks to the quick actions of Takas and Straub, his mother said. “They went above and beyond their duties,” she said, “and took Justin into their care as if he were their own.”
