You’ve probably seen people get frozen and then brought back to life on science fiction shows and movies, and during that period, the person hasn’t aged a day, even though hundreds of years have passed. Of course, you roll your eyes and go, “well, there’s no way someone could freeze to death and then come back to life.” But you’d be dead wrong! A woman named Jean Hilliard from rural northwestern Minnesota, had actually frozen in a blizzard back in December 1980, and somehow, she was brought back to life. It sounds like sheer fiction, but it actually happened, and here are the details of the horrifying events that lead to Hilliard being dubbed the Ice Woman.The road was icy and slippery, and her car skidded all the way into a ditch. Given that it was dark and the weather conditions weren’t favorable, she decided to brave the blizzard and try to walk back to her friend’s house.
The temperature had gone as low as -22 degrees Fahrenheit, so seeking shelter in her car wasn’t an option. Instead, she figured that she’d head to her friend’s house, which was only two miles away. But the odds weren’t in her favor.
She was 15 feet away from the door, but she was face down, and was covered in snow for six hours and she remained there until they eventually found her seemingly lifeless body on the doorsteps of her friend’s home.
She was frozen solid and her eyes were opened. Nelson tried moving her body, but her joints were frozen solid. Left with no other option, he decided to carry her to his car and place her there diagonally, while he took her to the hospital to get medical attention.
Even if she was, Nelson knew that the odds of getting Hilliard on the road to recovery were very slim. But he had to try and get her to the hospital first and let the medical professionals do their job. All he could hope for now was a miracle.
Her eyes didn’t react to the light and her body temperature was so low that no living person could have endured that. Doctors also had a rough time sticking an IV into her because her skin was frozen and hard.
Doctor George Sather and his medical staff monitored Hilliard, and they noticed her heart began to beat again after three hours of being thawed. Eventually, she started to regain consciousness and respond, particularly when her parents arrived to be at her side.
Despite the slow progress, Hilliard was proving to be a miracle as she slowly regained full consciousness. But for the life of her, she couldn’t get why everyone around her continued asking her if she knew who she was.
She also had some serious frostbites, which shocked doctors like Ryan Killy as the teen made a miraculous recovery. Most patients would have run the risk of losing their fingers and toes. But Hilliard hadn’t.
In the end, Hilliard ended up spending six extra days in the ER at the hospital in Fosston, Minnesota, before being transferred to the regular hospital wing for an additional 49 days. Then she was released and allowed to resume a normal, healthy, young life.
Hilliard’s story was nothing short of a miracle, especially given how limited medical technology was back in the early 80s. But Snopes, a site that dedicates itself to determining whether a story is true or bogus, corroborated the story as truth, but definitely not an unsolved mystery.
