This is the paradox of hypothermia as both threat and protector — the same force that depresses the vital functions toward extinction also depresses the metabolic demand that would otherwise consume the body’s dwindling resources in hours rather than days.

Cold kills slowly.

That is not a description of cold as a gentle death — there is nothing gentle about freezing.

But it is a statement about the time that cold provides, and time is what medicine requires.

The six hours that Jean Hilliard spent on Wally Nelson’s porch step were terrible hours, the kind that should not result in survival.

But they were also hours during which her core, however depleted in its function, managed to maintain just enough activity to be recoverable.