DALLAS - Kenny Homer has been a Dallas firefighter for 16 years. It's a stressful job, which is why he decided to take a vacation last month to Cozumel.
About 30 minutes into his flight to Mexico, he realized something was wrong.
"I'm just relaxing listening to my headsets and I heard a ruckus behind me," he said.
A woman was unconscious in the seat behind him, said Homer. He jumped into action.
"I picked her up, laid her on the floor. At this time the whole plane was in a ruckus," said Homer. "I was asking for assistance, somebody to elevate her feet."
When he checked her vitals, he realized the situation was urgent.
"She did bottom out, that's a term that's used where her blood pressure dropped, blood sugar was low," said Homer. "It can be pretty bad. You can go into shock. A lot of things can happen during that time when a person's blood pressure bottoms out."
Tracey Zak was also on the flight with her 13 year old daughter. She took pictures of Homer helping the unconscious woman.
"I was hoping that my daughter wouldn't see somebody die right in front of her," said Zak.
Homer didn't have his equipment with him. He said much of what he used came from other passengers, including a diabetic passenger with a blood sugar monitor and a nurse with blood pressure cuffs.
"It's kind of like Batman without the bat belt," he said.
Homer performed CPR and gave the woman oxygen until she regained consciousness. He stayed by her side for two hours. reassuring her, and keeping the rest of the plane calm, until they landed in Mexico, where an ambulance was waiting.
"This girl is barely breathing," said Zak. "We were all holding hands, we were all praying together for a miracle. Kenneth was the miracle definitely on that flight."
"I think God puts us in certain situations in certain times, I think that's why I was on that flight in that particular seat," said Homer. "It's not a coincidence that I was there."
Zak sent the fire department pictures of Homer helping the woman and told them what happened.
The woman may be alive today because of Homer. The fire department honored Homer when he returned. But that's not why he stepped in. He said, it's what any firefighter would do, because he devoted his life to helping others and that doesn't end when he's on vacation.