The family of the teenager who nearly drowned in Lake Meridian earlier this summer is speaking out for the first time. They are calling the recovery of 14-year-old Ramiah Mitchell a “miracle."
It was June 30 when Chopper 7 captured this chaotic scene at Lake Meridian in Renton.
Ramiah was in the water with his brother, when he suddenly went under.
His grandfather, Cleveland Dillon, was also there.
“I realized that something was wrong when they got on the horn and told everybody to get out of the water,” Cleveland Dillon said.
Dillon said the lifeguards and people on the beach formed a human chain and found Ramiah in about nine feet of water.
When he first came out, Ramiah didn’t have a pulse. Lifeguards immediately performed CPR.
Our camera was rolling as Ramiah was taken to the hospital.
He was in the ICU for two weeks and has been undergoing intensive therapy due to the injuries to his brain here at Seattle's Children Hospital ever since.
His grandmother, Gloria Dillon, says her grandson knows how to swim, but was not comfortable in deep water.
She said on that day, he wasn't wearing his life jacket.
“Water is beautiful,” Gloria Dillon said. “And they all love it. But they can turn deadly like that.”
Her husband said there’s a long road of recovery ahead for their grandson, but they are grateful he made it out of the water alive that day.
“It’s a blessing,” Cleveland Dillon said. "I just thank the lifeguards, the staff at the hospital for all the work stuff they did to save him.”
Ramiah is set to leave the hospital next week, and his grandparents say he should be able to go back to school in the fall, when he will start ninth grade.