Lindsey Vonn says she almost had leg amputated after crash at Winter Olympics | Lindsey Vonn
Lindsey Vonn says she almost had her leg amputated following her fall during the Olympic downhill earlier this month.
The 41-year-old suffered a complex fracture of the tibia in his left leg in the crash and underwent several surgeries in Italy before being flown back to the United States for further treatment last week. But in an Instagram post on Monday, the American said the accident also led to compartment syndrome in her leg. This condition occurs after traumatic injuries such as falls from heights and car accidents. According to the Cleveland Clinic, “compartment syndrome occurs when there is too much pressure around your muscles. The pressure restricts the flow of blood, fresh oxygen, and nutrients to your muscles and nerves. Compartment syndrome is extremely painful.” Lack of blood flow can lead to permanent damage in patients.
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“When you have so much trauma to one area of your body that there is too much blood and it gets stuck and crushes everything,” Vonn said in her post.
She said it was Dr. Tom Hackett, an orthopedic surgeon who works with Vonn and Team USA, who saved her leg. “He opened it and let it breathe, and he saved me,” she said.
Vonn added that Hackett was only in Italy because he was checking on her after she tore her ACL in the run-up to the Olympics. “If I hadn’t done that, Tom wouldn’t be here [and he] I couldn’t have saved my leg,” she said.
Vonn revealed that she was released from the hospital for the first time since the day of her accident, although she hasn’t returned home yet.
“After almost 2 weeks in an almost completely immobile hospital bed, I’m finally well enough to move into a hotel. It’s not home yet, but it’s a big step!” she wrote.
Vonn also broke her ankle in the accident and she says it will take her some time to recover from her injuries.
“It will take about a year for all the bones to heal, then I will decide if I want to remove all the metal or not, then I will go back into surgery and finally repair my ACL,” she wrote.
In an Instagram post on Sunday, Vonn said she had no regrets about competing in the Olympics, despite her injuries.
“I showed up and did what most thought impossible at my age with a partial knee replacement,” she wrote. “I will keep these memories forever and I am grateful for each and every one of them. Every moment was incredible. Every moment was worth it.”
