The more legitimate scientific work on hypothermia survival continued through the postwar period, driven by the interests of military medicine, wilderness medicine, and the emerging specialty of emergency medicine.

By the 1970s and 1980s, the medical understanding of hypothermia had advanced considerably — the physiological stages were characterized, the mechanisms were increasingly understood, and the importance of continued treatment even in apparently hopeless cases was recognized by the most informed practitioners.

Jean Hilliard arrived at the Fosston hospital at a moment when that understanding existed in principle but was not yet universally applied in practice.

Dr.