In the poem the cremation of sam mcgee, did sam actually die or did he just defrost

The poem "The cremation of Sam Mcgee" about the story of his friend, Sam McGee, who faces extreme weather and freezes to death while on a freezing cold winter trip to Yukon.

Sam McGee hated the extremely cold weather so he asked the speaker of the poem to burn his body to ashes when he dies since he did not want to get buried in the frozen ground.

So when he died, the speaker tried burning his body according to Sam's will  but instead of burning, Sam got alive because had not died and his body just needed some defrosting.