The nurses who monitored Jean Hilliard’s temperature as it rose from below measurable to measurable to dangerous to improving, who watched her cardiac rhythm for the arrhythmias that are a constant risk in rewarming, who managed her airway and her position and the multiple aspects of her care while she remained unconscious and then semi-conscious and then gradually more aware — these were part of the team that made the outcome possible.

The documentation of Jean Hilliard’s case focuses, as medical documentation typically does, on the physician’s observations and decisions.

The nursing record — the moment-by-moment monitoring, the specific interventions, the observations that would not have made it into a published case report — is less visible in the sources that have been cited in the decades since.

The outcome required the whole team.

The Car In The Ditch