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Over 41 years ago, there was an event in the United States that the media described as a “miracle”. Doctors, more inclined to make rational judgments, describe it as “extraordinary happiness”. A 19-year-old girl lay for six hours in a 30-degree frost. In the hospital, they considered her dead, her skin was so hard that the needle could not be inserted. How did she survive? And did the event leave any traces in her body?
- Probably many of us have heard that Walt Disney was frozen so that after a hundred years its vital functions could be restored. Obviously this is bullshit
- However, medicine knows real cases where a frozen man, considered dead, came back to life, not after years, but several hours
- In 1980, 19-year-old Jean Hilliard, returning from a party in the 30-degree frost, fell and lay in the snow for several hours
- She owes her life to a friend who, though he thought she was dead, quickly drove her to the hospital
- You can find more such stories on the Onet homepage
Jean Hilliard frozen for six hours
On the night of December 20-21, 1980, nineteen-year-old Jean Hilliard was returning home after partying with friends. At -30 degrees C, her car fell into a ditch. Driving was impossible, so Hilliard headed for her friend Wally Nelson’s house to find help. She was not prepared for a walk in such conditions, her clothes were quite light, and in addition, the distance was much greater than she initially thought …
A few meters from her friend’s house, she passed out and fell. She lay in the frost for six hours. Nelson walked outside the house this morning and saw Hilliard. Seeing her open eyes, he was convinced she was dead. “I grabbed her by the collar and threw her on the porch,” Nelson said years later in an interview with Minnesota Public Radio. «I thought he was dead. She froze stiffer than the board, but I could see a few bubbles coming out of her nose ».
Nelson was so alert enough to rush her to the hospital.
It’s more than hypothermia
Medicine knows cases when an extremely cold body can stop the dying process and live with a low heart rate for some time. It’s hypothermia. However, in the case of Hilliard, it is difficult to talk about this phenomenon. With hypothermia, the body temperature drops to 27 degrees Celsius, which is 10 degrees lower than in the case of a healthy person. Her temperature was much lower.
The 19-year-old girl was actually frozen. Her face was gray, her eyes were glass, and her skin was so hard that a needle could not be inserted. “The flesh was cold, completely hard, like a piece of meat taken out of a deep freeze,” said George Sather’s physician who was caring for her.
- How to safely recover from hypothermia? [WE EXPLAIN]
Doctors saw no hope. They considered her dead, but nevertheless tried to bring her back to life. They used blankets and electric pillows to keep her warm. After a while the nurse felt a pulse. By late morning Jean Hilliard was awake abruptly and by noon she was able to talk normally. Until a few hours before, she had been almost a block of ice, now she was worried about what her father would say about the abandoned car in the ditch.
She left the hospital soon. Initially, doctors considered amputating both legs to avoid infection from frostbite. But it turned out that it only ended up in numb limbs and blisters on the fingers.
The accident left no permanent traces in her body. She got married, had children, then divorced. Until recently, she lived in Cambridge, Minnesota, and worked at Walmart there.
How not to freeze – what does biology say?
Water after freezing, in the form of ice, has a greater volume than before, as a liquid. As a result, the body’s liquid content swells when it freezes and can tear its structure apart. A few tiny ice crystals in the wrong place can mechanically damage tissues or blood vessels. As a result, frostbite is irreversible, which looks like blackened fragments of skin or muscles.
Some species have developed antifreeze defense mechanisms in the process of evolution. Deep-sea Antarctic fish produce glycoproteins that prevent the formation of ice crystals in their cells. The liver of a tree frog releases large amounts of glucose and glycerol into the body at very low temperatures, which also protects its organs from damage resulting from crystallization. Thanks to this, the frog is resistant to freezing and dehydration.
But how did Jean Hilliard’s body survive such a severe freeze? Perhaps it was due to the unusual chemical composition of her body, it is not known. However, perhaps the better explanation is that there was no actual freezing. Her body temperature was very low, but still well above freezing. The fluids in the veins did not freeze completely, though the muscle was stiff enough to be associated with a dead man.
There is probably a process that takes place in the body of, for example, a bear during hibernation. Oxygen demand is reduced, blood flow is slowed down and restricted, at the expense of blood vessels under the skin to keep vital organs functioning. The skin then turns gray and cold to the touch.
Coming back to – perhaps – the unusual chemical composition in the girl’s body. Some specialists believe that she was saved from death by a large amount of alcohol she had drunk, which stopped the freezing process of vital organs.