Hey there, DETECTIVES! DETECTIVE WRITER to introduce you all to an interesting topic regarding the case of Jean Hilliard.
Jean Hilliard was in the hospital in 1980 with her family.
On New Year’s Eve, December 1980, in Lengby, Minnesota, Jean Hilliard was 19 when she was driving back to her family’s home after a night out. She only wore a winter coat, mittens, and cowboy boots. The weather was minus 22 Fahrenheit, minus 30 Celsius- basically, 22 degrees outside which is quite cold. At some point, she fell and went unconscious. Her body was on the ground for over 6 hours and went literally frozen solid. Her entire body temperature was barely 27 degrees Celsius, a full 10 degrees below the average human. Her friend, Wally Nelson eventually found her lying in the snow, just a few miles away from his own front door.
When she was taken to the hospital, the doctor who treated her, George Sather, stated her body was, “… Just like a piece of meat out of a deep freeze.” Her skin was too hard to puncture through any needles, her eyes were frozen, and her face was extremely pale.
Thankfully, the mysterious miracle appeared that after some time, through the warmth of heating pads, her body was back to its normal health. Although she had body spasms throughout the night, Hilliard was talking again, no longer frozen, and later discharged to tell her extremely extraordinary tale. She said she felt just like her usual self. Coincidence, in 2015, a similar case occurred to a 25-year-old man named Justin Smith who collapsed on the ground in Pennsylvania, and his father found him two hours later. His body was 68 degrees, spent 2 weeks in a coma, but despite the lack of oxygen, his brain did not display any signs of brain damage. Both individuals remain alive to this day. While the reason behind her survival continues to be such a surprise, the fact that cases as Hilliard’s can happen, just proves how amazing science and magic can be.
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I hope you have enjoyed this storytime as much as I did, DETECTIVES! Please let me know in the comments if you want more storytime! Have a great day, night, afternoon, or evening, DETECTIVES! Stay tuned for next week’s post; until then, keep on sleuthing, DETECTIVES!
Detective Writer 