The extremities are sacrificed to buy time for the core.

This is why frostbite most commonly affects the fingers, toes, ears, and nose — the tissues farthest from the core, the ones that circulation abandons first when the cold demands the body make choices.

These tissues suffer the cellular damage that results from direct freezing; the core tissues are protected by the continued, if minimal, circulation.

In Jean Hilliard’s case, the peripheral sacrifice appears to have been extensive — her entire surface, not just the extreme tips of fingers and toes, appears to have been subject to significant tissue freezing.

But the core held.