Lindsey Vonn has revealed that she came close to having her leg amputated following a crash during the Olympic downhill earlier this month. The 41-year-old American skier sustained a complex tibia fracture to her left leg and underwent multiple surgeries in Italy before being flown back to the US for further treatment.
In an Instagram post on Monday, Vonn said the crash also caused compartment syndrome, a condition where pressure builds up around muscles, restricting blood flow and potentially causing permanent damage. She explained that trauma to the area led to an accumulation of blood that 'crushes everything'.
Vonn credited Dr Tom Hackett, an orthopaedic surgeon working with her and Team USA, with saving her leg. 'He filleted it open and let it breathe, and he saved me,' she wrote. Hackett was in Italy monitoring Vonn after she tore her ACL before the Olympics, and she noted that without that injury, he would not have been present.
Vonn is now out of hospital for the first time since the crash, though she has not yet returned home. She wrote, 'After almost 2 weeks of laying in a hospital bed almost completely immobile, I’m finally well enough to move to a hotel.' She also broke her ankle in the crash and expects a full recovery to take around a year, with possible further surgery to remove metal implants and fix her ACL.
Despite the severe injuries, Vonn expressed no regrets about competing in the Olympics. In a previous post, she said, 'I showed up and did what most thought was impossible at my age with a partial knee replacement. Every moment was amazing. Every moment was worth it.'
