BALLWIN, Mo. – Officer Tabitha Peebles is the new kid on the block at the Ballwin Police Department.
“Almost six months,” said Peebles. “There’s a lot that I haven’t learned yet. I just try to take it in day by day. I feel like I learn something every single day.”
For instance, a brand-new police officer responding to a potential suicide.
“If I was a little later, he could have gone through with what he was going to do,” she said.
The self-described ‘daddy’s girl’ had one problem on her way to becoming a police officer – she had to convince daddy.
“He just didn’t want me to be a police officer because of the dangers, of course,” said Peebles.
Last October, a couple of month after completing police academy training, Peebles was looking forward to a Caribbean cruise to Cozumel, Mexico with 30 family members.
“Swimming with stingrays, relaxing on the beach,” she said.
Some days, life’s a beach. To this day, no one is sure why 76-year old Oklahoman Julian Doyon was unconscious in the water in Cozumel. His daughter Julie Hix, also of Oklahoma, knew something was horribly wrong.
“My husband, he heard me scream when I found my dad,” said Hix. Tapped him on the shoulder, nothing happened. Flipped him over. He was completely blue and so I went hysterical.”
Peebles had just settled in for a relaxing afternoon on the beach. “I closed my eyes for a second and I just hear screams,” said Peebles. “I just jumped up and ran. I didn’t know what I was running to.”
Hix and another man dragged her father to shore. He wasn’t breathing.
Peebles performed CPR for 25 minutes and spoke to Doyon while trying to save his life.
“I said ‘come on, breathe. I check for a pulse and there wasn’t one,” said Peebles.
It’s not uncommon for CPR to cause broken ribs, and that’s what happened when Peebles cracked one of Doyon’s ribs. Eventually Doyon coughed up sea water and started breathing.
“I don’t know what I would have done without my dad,” said Hix. “Had she not been there we would have taken him home in a box.”
Instead, an ambulance crew took him to a hospital in Cozumel.
“Ten days in the ICU and seven days outside the ICU before he was air ambulanced to Oklahoma,” said Hix.
Doyon said considering he was dead for an undetermined amount of time, he’s doing much better than that day on a Cozumel beach.
“I’m on oxygen right now. I probably won’t ever get off it. As far as everything else, my mind is good and everything,” said Doyon during a Facetime interview from Oklahoma. “I appreciate everything she done for me.”
For the Doyon family, what gift could possibly reward Peebles for the gift of life?
“They call me their guardian angel,” said Peebles. “They sent me a card and a bracelet with an angel wing on it and I wear it every single day.”
