The interaction of luck and physiology and human decision-making — Wally opening the door, Sather deciding to treat rather than to accept the apparent death, the heating pads slowly raising the temperature — is what produced the outcome.

No single element was sufficient.

All of them together were.

The Body That Came Back

Returning, at the end of this account, to the place where the story begins: the body on the porch.

The body that Wally Nelson found on his porch step on the morning of December 21, 1980 was, by every surface indication available to him or to the emergency room staff who received her, not alive in any way that offered reasonable hope.

It was rigid.