Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Wife's survival 'miracle': husband
Donna Molnar, 55, disappeared Friday after going out to buy groceries. She was found Monday in a clearing near Ancaster, Ont., buried under 60 centimetres of snow.
She was in hospital Tuesday in critical condition and could lose some extremities, but is expected to survive.
Police say they believe the snow saved Molnar because it insulated her from overnight lows of -15 C that would have felt closer to -29 C with the wind chill.
Her husband, who is Roman Catholic, believes there's something more.
Doctors and cold-weather experts told Molnar and his 20-year-old son Matthew that the odds were stacked against his wife.
"I mean, she wasn't dressed to climb Mount Everest," Molnar said, noting his wife was wearing a winter coat, mitts and boots.
"It's a miracle, there's no doubt about that."
Molnar said he became concerned when his wife, a secretary at a high school, didn't come back from the store Friday afternoon.
Her sport utility vehicle was found Saturday night, and officers started searching the area Sunday morning but could not find the missing woman.
She was finally found Monday at about 12:30 p.m. by a police dog and its handler, buried under snow in a windswept farm field near Ancaster, about 80 kilometres west of Toronto.
Only her face and neckline were exposed, and there was little snow underneath her.
The snow might have saved Molnar's life, said Geoff Coulson of Environment Canada.
"A layer of snow, it can actually act as a layer of insulation, helping to trap your body warmth," said Coulson, a warning preparedness meteorologist with the national weather forecaster.
Rescuers later told the woman's husband she was conscious and asking questions -- the date, time, where her purse ended up. She even reportedly apologized to paramedics for the situation.
"For us that know Donna... that's just like her," Molnar said.
His wife of 33 years is being treated for hypothermia, with severe injuries to her hands and feet, and is under heavy sedation, so he hasn't had the chance to ask her about the ordeal.
-- The Canadian Press
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 24, 2008 A11
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