TRENDING

In a recent Associated Press article, Jeff Barnard reports a case in which 12-year-old Nicole Kissel took her life in her hands when she heard a cry for help. Another child, Charles “Dale” Ostrander, was drowning in the ocean.

Despite her father’s cries not to go after Dale and risk her own safety, Nicole went against the current and helped Dale onto her boogie board to help him back to the shore. In the AP interview afterward, Nicole said that she thought they would die on the way back as waves crashed around them.

Before they returned, though, a wave hit the children, and Dale was not able to get back on the board. Rescuers pulled Dale from the waves and performed CPR. Though he had been under water for nearly 30 minutes, the boy pulled through with a miraculous recovery at a children’s hospital.

Nicole visited Dale and his family at the hospital. When asked if she had any second thoughts about her rescue mission, she told ABC News, “When someone is about to drown or someone needs help, you don’t really think about it before you’re about to help them.”

by Meghan DeMaria | 2/1/2016