Lindsey Vonn says she nearly lost her leg after a heavy crash at the Winter Olympics – and has thanked the doctor who saved her from needing an amputation.
The American skiing great, 41, has had multiple operations since breaking her leg and ankle in the women’s downhill event in Italy on 8 February.
Speaking in an Instagram video on Monday,, external she paid tribute to her surgeon for saving her leg and described the injury as “the most extreme, painful and challenging” of her career.
Von said her leg was “in pieces” and that she had compartment syndrome, a pressure inside a muscle, which restricts blood flow – and that the surgeon performed a fasciotomy, an emergency operation, to relieve the pressure.
“Dr Tom Hackett saved my leg – he saved it from being amputated,” she said.
“He cut open both sides of my leg, so it was open and let it breathe so to speak. He saved me.”
Vonn, who returned to the United States last week after four operations in Italy, said she has now left hospital and been moved to a hotel, describing it as a “huge step”.
She added that she will be in a wheelchair “for a while” because in addition to the broken leg, she has also broken her ankle.
Vonn was racing at the Olympics in Cortina nine days after rupturing ligaments in her left knee when she struck a gate 13 seconds into her downhill run.
She was airlifted off the piste and diagnosed with a complex tibia fracture in her left leg.
Having returned to the USA, Vonn explained she had a six-hour reconstructive operation on Wednesday, but also needed a blood transfusion as she had “low haemoglobin due to all the blood loss and surgeries”.
She added: “I turned a corner, and now I am out. It’s going to be a long road, I’m in a wheelchair right now, very much immobile. I hope I can be on crutches in a little bit, but we’ll see and be on them for at least two months.”
Vonn said it could take a year for her bones to heal, adding: “Then I will decide if I want to take out all the metal or not, and then go back into surgery and finally fix my ACL [anterior cruciate ligament].”