Last month, Dale Ostrander made national headlines when he was miraculously recovered after being dragged underwater by a strong riptide.

Ostrander was visiting a Washington State beach with his church group when his swim at sea went terribly wrong.

A strong current forced him underwater, where he stayed for an estimated 20 minutes. When Ostrander was finally found, he wasn't breathing.

But only a month after being pulled from the Pacific Ocean with no pulse, the 12-year-old is walking, dressing himself and learning to talk again.

Both his rescuers and doctors continue to call his recovery a miracle.

"You can't get your mind around it, being dead for 20 minutes... coming back," said Dale's father Chad Ostrander. "How do you get your mind around that?"

Doug Knutzen and Eddie Mendez are the men that rescued Dale.

"He was fully clothed wearing dark clothes. The ocean was dark. There was a tremendous amount of kelp," Knutzen recalled. "There's a lot of false hope when we were seeing dark spots in the water."

"I got really close and I tell my rescue swimmer, 'He's right here. So jump right here,'" Mendez added.

Both men said that by the time they found Dale, they'd given up hope that he would survive.

As members of Ostrander's church group prayed on the beach, paramedics found a pulse.

Doctors say Ostrander's progress is remarkable, and his parent's are beginning to see some of his old self coming back every day.

The Ostranders say that no matter what happens from here, their prayers were already answered nearly a month ago when Dale was saved.