Jean Hilliard

It was a frigid December night in the small town of Lengby, Minnesota when 19 year-old Jean Hilliard was driving her fathers Ford LTD back to their family home after an evening out dancing with her friends at the towns hottest spot, the Fosston American Legion. Shortly after midnight, Jean had decided to take a short cut back, yet, it is this decision that would ultimately leave her frozen in time.

As she turned onto the icy gravel road, it wasn’t long before the car started to loose control and slid into the ditch. Jean quickly jumped into action, as being stranded within a car on the side of a back-county service road in the middle of a Minnesota winter night was a definite death sentence. As she got out of the car, she remembered that her friend, Wally Nelson, lived right down the road… or so she had thought.

Donning only a winter jacket, mittens and some cowboy boots, Jean set off into the arctic night. The small walk quickly turned into a full, fledged venture as Jean walked and walked, yet found herself only becoming more frustrated, as every hill that she had conquered, failed to show a house on the other side. After a couple of miles, Jean finally found Wallys house just beyond the tree line. As she descended her way down to the house, everything went black.

This part of the story is a bit blurry, as the only individual who knows what is to be true, has no recollection, yet others have filled in the blanks. From the tracks found within Wallys front yard, is is believed that Jean lost her footing and tripped. Using up all the last bit of energy that she had, she then crawled on her own hands and knees to his doorstep. Tragically, she never made it to the front door, as this is where Wally would come to find her… nearly 6 hours later.

Wally Nelson was best friends with Jeans boyfriend and was also out dancing at the Fosston American Legion with her the night that her car had slid into the ditch. Unlike Jean, Wally had left earlier that night as he had scored with a lady and took her back to his place (this is an important key to the story). In an interview from 2018 with MPR News, Wally had recounted the bizarre events that occurred nearly 30 years prior. Wally awoke that morning, he opened his front door to find his best friends girlfriend frozen, to what he believed, was death. Overcome with shock and surprise, Wally jumped into the yard and grabbed Jean by her collar and skidded her onto his porch. Despite his original belief, Wally noticed a few small bubbles coming from Jeans nose.

He immediately knew time was of the essence, as he ran back into the house to alert his overnight guest that he would need help moving a body. The two of them attempted to load Jeans frozen body into his truck, but due to how stiff she was, she didn’t fit inside the cab. Leaving no other option, they grabbed his lady friends car and were able to successfully load up Jean and head for help at the local hospital.

Once at Fosston hospital, Doctors and nurses swarmed the frozen body and immediately went to work. What they were met with was doubtful thoughts and broken needles, as Jean was so frozen, that they were unable to get an IV into her arm after numerous attempts. With the odds looking bleak, doctors decided to try one final thing: warming her up with heating pads. As the heating pads started to defrost Jeans frozen body, a pastor was called and a prayer chain had begun. Many feared her for gone, yet many still prayed.

It was at midmorning when Jeans body began to spasm.
She was alive.

By noon, Jean was speaking normally and seemed to be functioning as her normal self. The doctors were stunned and could not believe their eyes. Not only was she fully functioning, she barred little evidence of her walk with death, as she had only a couple of frost bitten toes that were numb for awhile to show.

Cases like Jeans’ have occurred occasionally, yet hers is one of the first recorded cases where the individual fully recovered, all digits and limbs still fully attached. Doctors, especially ones from a little Midwestern county hospital, during the early 80s didn’t have the equipment that ones do today. Within our modern tech-savy world, if and when someone is frozen solid (which happens more than you’d think) doctors use a special device that allows the patients blood to be pumped through a heater, thus warming up their vital organs from the inside out. It is hard to grasp how Jean was not only able to survive, but to come out unscathed from her whole ordeal. Some may look to science while others may look to the miracle of prayer to find reason in how such a thing could have occurred. In situations like such, it is important to remember that there is much that we as humans still do not know nor understand when it comes to the complexities of the human body and its ability to protect and heal itself.

Throughout time, the human body has evolved to withstand challenges that threaten its existence. In the case of Jean Hilliard, one could look to the evolution of gene variants and human migration in an attempt to find reason for her ability to withstand arctic temperatures for the duration in which she did. As some of the first humans moved away from Africa and migrated to colder climates, their bodies had to adjust to the dramatic change of environment. This adjustment resulted in a variation to a gene that affected certain muscle fiber contractions. It has been found that individuals who may be lacking the gene called ACTN3, which encodes the protein alpha-actinin-3, are more tolerable to colder climates. This has been an area of curiosity, as researchers at Karolinska Institute in Sweden continued to build on the various other studies that have been conducted in the hopes of learning how some are more prone to the cold than others. In the Karolinska study, 42 male participants ranging in between the ages of 18 to 40 years old, with a mix of variant and non-variant genetic markers, were asked to engage in 20-minute intermittent, full body cooling immersion sessions. Throughout this process; body temperatures, oxygen levels, heart rate, and muscle electrical activity were monitored. Muscle biopsies were also analyzed to measure the impact that cold had on protein content and muscle fiber-type composition. In the study, 69% of the individuals that had the gene variant were able to maintain their core body temperatures of roughly 35° C, or 95° F, for the complete duration in which they were exposed to the cold. Only 30% of the individuals without the variant were able to maintain the same body temperature throughout the sessions. The individuals with the gene variant also had higher rates of slow-twitch muscle fibers, which are more durable, energy-efficient, and are less likely to fatigue when compared to fast-twitch muscle fibers, which are much more reactive and results in them requiring more energy consumption and results in what we more commonly know as shivering.

Was it genetic resiliency or was it the power of prayer and pure chance? When it comes to Jean, we may never know whether or not she has this specific gene variant, but learning information as such, allows us to deepen our knowledge on the human body as a whole, as we are all so unique, yet so similar. Her bodies innate resiliency is fascinating, as it defied the odds and was able to withstand what would conquer many. It has been a little over 30 years since the story of Jean Hilliard had taken the nation by storm. Jean was seen as a miracle and found herself on an array of talk shows and being interviewed by many. Now, Jean Hilliard can be found living a quiet, quant little life in Minnesota. Her story may be within the past, yet her ripple affect throughout society can still be seen as others, like myself, retelling the story of the frozen minnesotan teen.