But Jean Hilliard’s case — dramatic, well-documented, and resulting in an essentially complete recovery from what appeared to be a state inconsistent with life — became one of the strongest arguments for applying this principle aggressively.

Before cases like Jean Hilliard’s, the medical response to someone found apparently dead from hypothermia was often to accept the apparent death.

If the person had no pulse and no respiration and was cold, the presumption was death.

The effort required to rewarm a severely hypothermic patient was substantial, the equipment for active internal rewarming was not universally available, and the expected outcome was generally poor.

The accumulation of cases like Jean Hilliard’s — not identical, but sharing the core feature of apparent death from cold followed by recovery with aggressive rewarming — shifted this calculus.