In 1980, a woman named Jean Hilliard in rural north western Minnesota, was involved in a car accident which resulted in car failure in sub-zero temperatures.

In 1980, a woman named Jean Hilliard in rural north western Minnesota, was involved in a car accident which resulted in car failure in sub-zero temperatures.

She walked to a friend's house 2 miles away and collapsed 15 feet outside of the door. Temperatures dropped to −22 °F (−30 °C) and she was found "frozen stiff" at 7 a.m. after six hours in the cold.

She was transported to Fosston Hospital where doctors said her skin was too hard to pierce with a hypodermic needle and her body temperature was too low to register on a thermometer.

Her face was ashen and her eyes were solid with no response to light. Her pulse was slowed to approximately 12 beats per minute.

She was wrapped in an electric blanket.

The miraculous thing that happened was, 49 days after she was admitted, she was discharged from the hospital with no permanent damage to the brain or body besides frostbite.

Some people might be wondering how this was possible, but scientists explained this :

There's at least one possible scientific explanation.

In the article"Is Human Hibernation Possible," published in 2008 by the Annual Review of Medicine Dr. Cheng Chi Lee of the University of Texas' Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology notes that.

"Some mammals can enter a severe hypothermic state during hibernation in which metabolic activity is extremely low, and yet full viability is restored when the animal arouses from such a state."

In a search for therapeutic uses of induced-hypothermia, Dr. Lee found a "natural biomolecule," 5' AMP, that "allows rapid initiation of hypometabolism in mammals" and that.

"may eventually result in clinical applications where hypothermia has been shown to have tremendous lifesaving potential, such as trauma, heart attacks, strokes, and many major surgeries."

It is possible that Hilliard froze so quickly that her body skipped the phase where lasting tissue damage could be done and her body entered a hypometabolic state that allowed her basic life functions to continue until she was successfully thawed out.