LONG BEACH, Wash. Dale Ostrander was, by all accounts, dead.

But the 12-year-old boy is recovering in the hospital today after a surf rescue that has many using the word miracle.

Doug Knutzen is part of the South Pacific County Technical Rescue Team, the volunteer team that spotted the boy in the water. When Knutzen carried Ostrander from the surf on Friday and handed him to medics, the veteran rescuer feared the worst. 

Ive been doing this since 1978, Knutzen said. Its something you never get used to, but I knew that the boy was gone, absolutely gone.

Ostrander was at the beach off Cranberry Road halfway up the Long Beach Peninsula on day trip with the Bethel Baptist Church from Spanaway, Wash., when he got into trouble in the surf.

They just went for a day and were just getting in ankle- and knee-deep it wasnt a swimming activity but he got sucked in, said Denise Minge, daughter-in-law of Bethel Baptist Pastor Terry Minge.

Less than an hour later, as nearly two dozen church members prayed, cried and hugged one another on the beach, Ostrander had been rescued from the ocean and was in an ambulance being taken to Ocean Beach Hospital.

He wasnt breathing, had no pulse and was unresponsive for as much as 20 to 30 minutes.

He was, by many definitions, dead.

But at the hospital, his pulse returned.

He was flown to Oregon Health sciences Hospitals Doernbecher Childrens Hospital in Portland. On Sunday night, he opened his eyes as he was eased off sedatives.

On Monday he said a handful of words to his parents, Chad and Kirsten Ostrander. As they encouraged him to cough to clear his throat, he replied, I dont have to.

Doctors have cautioned his parents that even if the boy survives, he could have permanent brain damage. 

The physicians were very clear that he had been under for too long, had been without oxygen for too long, Kirsten Ostrander said, adding, We trust (God)?no matter what.

If he chooses to take Dale to heaven, and if he still chooses that, then hes still good, she said. And if he chooses to bless us and give us back our son, hes still good.

 

How it happened

Long Beach resident Shannon Kissel said Tuesday that he and his daughter Nicole had decided to try the waves near the Cranberry approach. They were catching a few waves Friday afternoon when the tide started to change, with the waves building on top of each other, getting stronger and stronger.

We kind of saw a group of people out there and we were thinking they were goofing off, but then my daughter swam out to them. I was yelling at her to get her attention, but she couldnt hear me They werent far out, but it doesnt take very far out to get into trouble.

Kissel yelled to one boy, who was thrashing around in about chest-deep water, and asked if he was drowning, and he said that he was. The waves were going over the boys head when Kissel was able to get a hold of him and successfully bring him to shore, where he gave bystanders their location on the beach and told them to call 911.

 

12-year-old hero

In the meantime, 12-year-old Nicole Kissel paddled out to Ostrander, asked his name and age, and told him to keep kicking in order to stay afloat.

They were each others strengths to get back, Shannon Kissel explained.

Nicoles grandmother, Darlene Terry, reported that Nicole Kissel was in the water when she heard a cry for help and saw a boy far out in the surf, upon which she took her boogie board and swam out to help him.

She related that Nicole said that once she reached him, she placed him on her board, laid on top of him and grasped the sides of the board to secure him as they were hit by the waves and pulled out further into the water. It was when they were hit by a large wave that they were pushed down to the bottom, where the two kids lost hold of the board and each other. 

Nicole was able to grasp Ostranders arm and, by pushing off from the bottom, pulled him up to the surface. They both swam towards the boogie board, which was floating about 20 feet away from them toward the shore.

But as Nicole reached the board, she looked back and the boy was gone. Thats when Shannon Kissel was able to reach his daughter and bring her back to shore while another bystander took her boogie board in an attempt to find Ostrander.

But the boy was still nowhere to be seen.

 

Volunteer rescuers dispatched

Pacific County Fire Department No.1 Fire Chief Jacob Brundage said his department was dispatched at 3:22 p.m. The first responding unit arrived about six minutes later to find Shanon and Nicole Kissel and the other boy on shore with one swimmer still unaccounted for. 

The Rescue Team responded and deployed two watercraft with rescue swimmers.

The story I was told was that there was a bystander and his daughter who were boogie boarding and heard the two kids screaming for help, Brundage said Tuesday. They werent very far out, about 100 yards offshore at the most, still in the surf zone. But (the kids) were caught in a rip and were panicking, and he understood how to manage it, swim sideways, and get them to shore.

According to the Pacific County Sheriffs Office, Shanon Kissel was instrumental in saving the swimmers.

The sheriffs office, Long Beach Fire Department, Washington State Parks and the U.S. Coast Guard, which was conducting drills less than a mile offshore, also responded.

On the sand about 20 kids gathered into groups and clutching each other in prayer.

Though the outdoor temperature was a comfortable 65 degrees that afternoon, Knutzen presumed that the water temperature was in the mid-50 degree range. Water that temperature can lead to death from hypothermia within an hour. Hypothermia, which is a loss of core body temperature, can quickly result in confusion and loss of coordination.

 

Boy is found

Within 10 minutes, Ostrander was located in the surf zone by rescue team volunteers aboard a WaveRunner.

Volunteer Eduardo Mendez spotted the boy partially submerged in the surf, deployed his rescue swimmer Will Green and together they made the pick up and returned the unconscious child to the beach.

Paramedics, kneeling in the sand, continued to work on him for about another 10 minutes. Then he was loaded into an ambulance.

Its up to paramedic discretion, not every situation is exactly the same, they have to take all the pieces of the scene and of what happened to determine the extent of resuscitation efforts, said Brundage.

Its up to the paramedic to make the decision when to stop efforts, and in that criteria or that protocol, there is a point where the paramedic can choose to terminate efforts, but in this case, the paramedic chose to continue resuscitation efforts to the hospital. I talked to my medic from that day and he said they didnt get any pulse in the back of the rig; they discovered a pulse after they arrived at the hospital.

Looking back on the dayss events, Brundage called it a team effort.

 Quickly finding the patients, our crews working on him and reviving him, the hospital stabilizing him and transferring him to a higher level facility, and the higher level facility continuing to provide a palette of care to preserve brain function, heart function, and specialists there to address any problems that come up. 

One hiccup in those steps probably wouldve yielded a different result.

This kind of surf rescue and how all the steps played out, this was certainly one in 100, he added. Its rare that we have such a successful outcome just because oftentimes drowning victims, when they come in, theyre dead. B

But it wasnt his time to go.

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Damian Mulinix of the Chinook Observer and The Associated Press contributed to this story.