Damian Mulinix heard the rescue call over the scanner, and rushed to the Long Beach Peninsula on the Washington coast. A photographer for the weekly Chinook Observer, Mulinix chronicled rescuers as they searched Friday for the body of a boy who had disappeared into the surf.

Dale Ostrander, 12, was visiting with a Spanaway church group, and got trapped in a riptide for 20 minutes. Youth from the church group knelt and prayed in the sand. Rescuers finally found Dale and brought the boy ashore, as Mulinix captured in this photo.

But Dale didn't have any vital signs. "Literally, he was dead for 20 minutes, half an hour probably," said Mulinix. Aid workers performed CPR for 10 minutes before taking Dale to the hospital. He was later taken to Doernbecher Children's Hospital at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, where he was kept in a coma for several days.

On Monday, Dale began breathing on his own and even spoke. "This is easily the most incredible story I've ever been part of," Mulinix said. "This is downright miraculous."

Seattle Times staff