Paulino 'Lucky to be Alive' After Fall
Hardhat Jose Paulino breaks four ribs, but is 'lucky to be alive' after 8-story fall BY Kevin Deutsch and Douglas Feiden DAILY NEWS WRITERS Gabel, Pearl The hardhat who plunged from midtown scaffolding had one thought after miraculously cheating death - he would see and hold his precious family on Christmas. "I was hurting and in pain, but I knew I was still alive, and right then I knew I would see my wife and kids again," Jose Paulino told the Daily News Friday from his bed in St. Vincent's Hospital . The 29-year-old construction worker plummeted from a 16th- floor plank on Christmas Eve after it snapped beneath his feet - but survived when he landed with a horrifying thud on scaffolding eight floors below. "I took a step, and I was falling, falling, falling. ... It felt like it was happening to somebody else," Paulino said. "First I tried to hold on to something, to grab on to something. ... But I just kept falling and fall...