Jean Hilliard’s case appears in discussions of extreme hypothermia survival as part of the broader evidence base that Giesbrecht and others have assembled.

It is one data point among many — but it is one of the most striking data points, because of the combination of peripheral freezing severity and core organ preservation that it represents.

The standard has been set.

The evidence has been accumulated.

The principle is taught.

And somewhere in that body of evidence and teaching and practice, a young woman who froze on a porch step in Lengby, Minnesota, is still contributing to the medicine that saves lives in cold places every winter.

The Return To The Question