This is a medical phenomenon!
After her car became trapped in a ditch one night and she had to walk through -30C temperatures to try to obtain assistance, the woman amazingly escaped being frozen stiff for six hours.
Jean Hilliard, a Minnesotan woman at the age of 19, found herself trapped in December 1980 and was forced to trek through the night in search of assistance. She was able to travel nearly three km in the freezing conditions before she slipped and fell.
During the six hours that followed, Jean was frozen by the subzero winter conditions after she fell unconscious.
The following morning, she was found by a friend who initially believed Jean was dead after finding her lying in his garden.
When Jean arrived at the hospital after being taken there in a hurry, she was unresponsive and the doctor attending to her even said that she was “like a frozen piece of meat.”
She was so icy that physicians’ needles were snapping on her skin, making it impossible for them to give her an IV.
Her body temperature was around 27C, 10 degrees below the usual range, and she was in the area where hypothermia poses a serious threat to life if left untreated.
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Although it is amazing that she was able to survive for six hours, the fact that she recovered fully elevated this to the level of a medical miracle.
After being warmed up by medical professionals using heating pads, Jean was able to defrost within a few hours with only a few frozen toes and no long-term health complications.
In a matter of hours, she went from being in excellent condition to having a body temperature that was potentially fatal and from being so frozen that she appeared to be dead.
What’s amazing is that doctors were caring for Jean in a small town hospital with nothing more than heating pads to thaw her out, despite the fact that modern medical advancements suggest a person might have a higher chance of surviving such an ordeal.
After being exposed to subfreezing temperatures for several hours, a person can have their important organs warmed up in modern hospitals, increasing their chance of survival.
However, given the extremely low temperatures can make a person appear to be dead with no breathing or response to stimuli, we wouldn’t advise attempting to recreate her frozen state.
Even with modern medical technology, don’t turn getting oneself frozen in the same way or whatever into a TikTok challenge. Jean Hilliard’s survival was considered a medical miracle.
Featured image credit: Serg Zastavkin/shutterstock.com
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You Can Stay In a Igloo Under The Glow Of The Northern Lights
Witnessing the unearthly spirals of the Northern Lights is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for many, and Finland’s monopoly on the glass igloo ensures that Finnish Lapland remains one of the best sites in the world to see the famed aurora.
Its imitators have made it all the way to Canada, but what’s on offer here, high above the Arctic Circle, is unrivalled. Finland has it all and more, whether you want to see the lights in a mobile waggon after ice fishing on frozen lakes, soak in a private hot tub, or husky sled before meeting Santa in your private, heated igloo. And it’s not just in the winter; some hotels also have summer packages to take advantage of the wonderful midnight sun that bathes the landscape. We’ve found a few Dome resorts that you’ll love.
Wilderness Hotel Inari, Finland
In the extreme north, where the Sami and their reindeer graze across snow-covered fells and tundra, Finnish Lapland is at its most astonishingly white and wild. This nouveau-rustic retreat on the banks of Lake Inari is all about the northern lights during the deep chill of winter. For spectacular northern light shows and stargazing, retreat to glass-roofed, laser-heated aurora lodges. If you prefer understated Scandi elegance, the fire-warmed Arctic huts with private saunas are ideal after a day of snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, or husky sledding.
Isbreen – The Glacier, Norway
Only from your minimalist-cool geodesic dome can you watch Europe’s sole glacier calving directly into the sea and the Finnmark Alps punching high above in ice blue and pearl white. Isbreen, in Norway’s Arctic north, bombards you with ferocious wintry beauty and brilliant northern light shows, which are best enjoyed while skiing, dogsledding, bubbling in the outdoor hot tub, or eating locally fished and foraged meals. The aurora domes are luxuriously warm, with ice-inspired colours, goose-down duvets, wood-burning stoves, telescopes, and large windows that maximise light-spotting opportunities.
Apukka Resort, Finland
Apukka Resort seems wonderfully secluded despite being five minutes from Finnish Lapland’s Santa HQ, Rovaniemi, with its snow-iced forest backdrop and dark night skies where the aurora routinely arcs and sways. With glass-roofed aurora igloos channelling contemporary Nordic architecture in monochrome tones and reindeer hides, this is a prime place for northern lights activity, sitting atop the Arctic Circle. Book the aurora waggon and be wheeled out into the forest or up to a frozen mountaintop for some at-one-with-the-lights time around a bonfire for additional fantasy. A lakeside sauna warms you up for an aurora hunt, whether on a snowmobile, reindeer-drawn sleigh, or horseback.
Wherever you choose to stay for this unique vacation, you can guarantee it will be a once in a lifetime experience. Hopefully you’ll be lucky enough to catch the mesmerising Aurora Borealis.
You might like to have a read of our guide to catching the Northern Lights before you go!
