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

Santa has a brand new leg.

A professional NJ mall Santa almost lost his leg, but is recovering in time for the holidays.

“I still choke. They saved my leg. I’m very, very grateful,” Ronald Fierro told The Post.

Doppelganger Kris Kringle 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 pulses, but my right leg was flat. There was no blood flow. “My toes and heels were burning and I started to think I might lose my leg,” said Fierro, 73, who suffers from diabetes.

In June, he underwent surgery called a 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 Rousseau.

“Given Ron’s medical conditions, his wound infection and the severity of his peripheral arterial disease, it is truly a Christmas miracle that he is bringing Christmas to life this year for so many children.”

Russo was unaware that his patient was playing Mr. Klaus at first.

“He literally looks like Santa, but I didn’t know that until the girls from the program told me he postponed his angiogram because he wanted to go to a Santa convention,” Russo said with a laugh.

Fierro began physical therapy — with the goal of being healthy enough in time to bounce kids on his lap like the beloved Santa Claus at the Freehold Raceway Mall.

“I don’t play Santa. I’m Santa,” he said.

Fierro first portrayed the big man when he worked 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 go to 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 nationwide.

At School4Santas, the world’s largest Santa school, he was trained in things like maintaining a beard and how to deal with a scared child.

“There are children who are scared to death. It’s almost guaranteed. Some of them are fighting for their lives,” he said.

“They’re all very excited, then they get close and go crazy. Even my granddaughter, at the age of 2, didn’t realize I was Santa Claus and cried.”

Another time, “a couple put my little boy next to their boots. . . . He gets up and runs. They went crazy because it was the first time he walked,” he recalls with a laugh.

A member of the International Brotherhood of Real Bearded Santas, the world’s largest organization of professional Santas, Fierro also reads the history of St. Nicholas, the third-century bishop on whom Santa is based.

“A lot of people don’t realize that 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 after his counterpart at the mall sprained his ankle, listed the most popular toys on children’s wish lists this season: “The Barbie Dream House is requested very often,” he said. “Pokemon Go, Spider-Man has been very popular … and a lot of dinosaurs.”