VAIL, Colo. — American skier Lindsey Vonn says she nearly lost her left leg following a frightening crash in the women’s downhill at the Milan Cortina Olympics.
Vonn revealed in an Instagram post on Monday that her injuries went far beyond the complex tibia fracture in the leg she initially hurt after clipping a gate and sailing off course just 13 seconds into her run on Feb. 8.
The 41-year-old Vonn said the trauma from the crash led to compartment syndrome in her leg. Compartment syndrome involves excessive pressure building up inside a muscle, either from bleeding or swelling. High pressure restricts blood flow and can lead to permanent injury if not treated quickly.
“When you have so much trauma to one area of your body so that there’s too much blood and it gets stuck and it basically crushes everything,” Vonn said.
Vonn credited Dr. Tom Hackett, an orthopedic surgeon who works for Vonn and Team USA, for conducting a fasciotomy to salvage her leg.
“He filleted it open (and) let it breathe, and he saved me,” she said.
Vonn noted that Hackett was only in Cortina because she was competing after tearing the ACL in her left knee shortly before the Olympics.
“If I hadn’t had done that, Tom wouldn’t have been there (and he) wouldn’t have been able to save my leg,” she said.
Vonn, who said she has been discharged from the hospital, also broke her right ankle in the crash.
