Whatever the specific mechanism, the preservation of her digits is another data point in the remarkable constellation of her survival.

The Nursing Staff Who Warmed Her

In the telling of Jean Hilliard’s story, the focus naturally falls on the physicians — on Sather, who made the diagnosis and determined the treatment, and on the medical principle he applied.

But the actual work of warming a severely hypothermic patient is nursing work as much as physician work, and the nursing staff at the Fosston hospital on the morning of December 21, 1980 were part of the team that saved her.

The application and monitoring of heating pads to a patient who cannot communicate their comfort level, who may react to warming with cardiac rhythm changes that require immediate response, who is being monitored for vital signs across multiple parameters simultaneously — this is intensive nursing care.