It's every parent's worst nightmare - a phone call from the hospital telling you that your child has had an accident and is on life support.

Teresa DeLeon-Cook got that call March 18, 2009, an hour after her son, Dustin, 19, fell more than 40 feet off a bridge into the Santa Cruz River. Submerged in the icy water for 15 minutes, he was eventually resuscitated and taken to the hospital, where he was put on life support.

In some ways, DeLeon-Cook had been expecting the call. Dustin was a drifter who had always romanticized the notion of traveling the country. For more than two years, he had supported himself as a street musician. Often, months would go by without a word.

A military spouse and manager at the Social Security Administration in Kent, DeLeon-Cook got on a plane early the next morning, "to take him off life support and bring (his body) back," she said. "I went down there to recover his body."

DeLeon-Cook's husband, Master Sgt. Doug Cook, a DoD civilian who works at the Logistics Center on Joint Base Lewis-McChord, was then an activated National Guardsman deployed in Iraq with the 1/303 Cavalry. She put in a call to the Red Cross to get her husband of nearly 30 years home, but it would take a few days.

It was time DeLeon-Cook didn't have. She arrived at the hospital and was inundated with medical advice. Doctors strongly recommended that she keep Dustin on life support.

As she sat in the hospital room, watching her son hooked to a plethora of tubes and wires and trying to wrap her head around all that had happened, a hospital cleaning lady came in to the room. As the woman went about her work, she spoke to DeLeon-Cook in Spanish. After a brief conversation, she told her, "You know, he doesn't belong to you. He's not yours. He belongs to God. You have to give him back."

DeLeon-Cook, who says she's not particularly religious, was nevertheless touched. Hearing those words helped her make the decision to take her son off life support. What happened next can only be called a miracle.

As Dustin's life support was disconnected, DeLeon-Cook stood by her son's side, fully expecting him to die. Amazingly, he started to breathe on his own. A few hours later, as she sat alongside him, droning from lack of sleep, DeLeon said she saw brain waves begin to appear intermittently on the monitors. First a few, then more, then many. Worried she was seeing things, she ran to get the nurse.

The shocked nurse called the doctors, who were just as stunned. As the staff was gathered around this miracle patient, watching in awe, Dustin opened his eyes, looked at his mother and said, simply, "hi mom."

"I couldn't believe it," DeLeon said."The whole thing was just so surreal."

He was released four days later. Now 25, Dustin lives in Burien and works as a detailer, playing gigs around town when he can and teaching himself Spanish guitar.

An avid reader who loves to write, DeLeon-Cook has written a short story about Dustin's miraculous recovery, which will be published in the new book Chicken Soup for the Soul: Miracles Happen, 101 Inspirational Stories about Hope, Answered Prayers, and Divine Intervention.

"I'm just delighted to get the story out there," said DeLeon-Cook, who lives in Spanaway and is also mother to Stephanie 31, and Dallas, 26. "So many people don't have hope and think their kid is the worst kid. It really gives you context."

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Miracles Happen will be available in bookstores and online beginning Feb. 4.