David Rogan, 11, was on one side of the large pine tree and his aunt Ann Bell on the other. They may have been touching a dribble of sap while seeking shelter from the gentle rain that fell most of Saturday during the family's annual Venango County reunion.

	Jennifer Rogan shows a baseball card photograph of her son David. Click photo for larger image.

One man relaxed under the same tree with a leg propped on a four-wheeler. At least two dozen more relatives sat at picnic tables shielded by its branches. A family talent show was under way nearby.

It was just before 6 p.m. at the Bell family farm in Sugarcreek Borough.

In the next instant, a lightning strike blasted the pine tree, scattering people like bowling pins, some falling backwards, some flattened, many yelling and at least one -- David -- lying motionless.

The chaotic moments after the strike were recounted yesterday by David's mother, Jennifer Rogan of New Castle, and her cousin, Tammy Coon, at a news conference at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, where David, who will be a seventh-grader this fall, remains on a ventilator, in critical condition.

Rogan remembers "a loud something -- I don't know if it was a noise or a feeling I felt" and then shouts that the oldest of her three sons wasn't breathing. "I just went frantic," she said.

Coon, a registered nurse from Franklin, Venango County, recalled "a large ball of light and a huge, huge explosion." She ran to David and began cardiopulmonary resuscitation compression while others, including the boy's grandfather, helped with the breathing.

And in the midst of the terror, many of the 80 family members got on their knees and prayed.

The lightning strike was part of an air mass of thunderstorms that moved through Venango County late Saturday afternoon. The reunion typically begins there on a Friday and runs until the last person leaves Sunday. Now in its 10th year, family members spend the weekend with nearby relatives or in tents around the farm.

"There was no storm" that would have alerted them to coming problems, Rogan said. "It was just raining and then all of a sudden it was tragedy."

For 20 minutes Coon and others worked to resuscitate David. Jennifer Rogan and others prayed.

"I truly believe my son was lying on the ground dead for 20 minutes," she said, "and the only reason he is here is prayer."

Bell was on the ground nearby. The blast burned her necklace into her skin, imprinting it like a tattoo. She looked purple and gray, but was conscious. The man with his leg on the four-wheeler had his work boot blown off. Both his legs felt paralyzed.

Nine ambulance, fire, paramedic and police units from around the county arrived. Twenty-seven people were treated at various hospitals and three, including David and Bell, were flown to Pittsburgh by air ambulance. Bell and the third person, Sarah Cochran of Franklin, were treated and released from Mercy Hospital.

Dr. Ann Thompson, a pediatric intensive care physician at Children's, said it was too early to know whether David suffered brain damage. While he's on the ventilator doctors are keeping his body cool to protect his central nervous system, Thompson said.

"His healing may hinge on the resuscitation," she said.

The only visible injury to him was a red mark on his right leg, she said. However, the strike destroyed his right shoe.

Coon said he believes the family's continued faith in God will make the difference in David's recovery.

"He never leaves you," she said. "He never forsakes you. He was there the whole time."