Lindsey Vonn says surgery saved her from having her left leg amputated following Olympic crash

United States’ Lindsey Vonn is airlifted away after a crash during an alpine ski women’s downhill race [AP Photo]

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 shared in an Instagram post on Monday that her injuries went far beyond the complex tibia fracture in the leg she initially revealed 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 the 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.

“It has been quite the journey and by far the most extreme and painful and challenging injury I’ve ever faced in my entire life times 100,” she said.

Vonn underwent multiple surgeries during a week-long stay at a hospital in Treviso, Italy, following the accident. She credited both Hackett and Italian doctors for their efforts to repair her leg, which she said was “in pieces” following the accident.

She says she struggled with pain and blood loss in the immediate aftermath and had to receive a transfusion to help raise her hemoglobin levels.

Vonn, who said she is “very much immobile,” is confined to a wheelchair at the moment, but has turned her attention to her rehab and is working her way toward being able to use crutches. She estimated it will take about a year for the bones in her left leg to heal. Only after that will doctors be able to go in and repair the torn ACL, which played no role in the crash.

“It’s going to be a long road,” she said. “I always fight and we keep going.”

Vonn stressed she had “no regrets” about her comeback following a six-year retirement or her decision to ski at the Olympics despite the knee injury.

“I wish it had ended differently, but I’d rather go down swinging than not try at all,” said Vonn, who was atop the World Cup series rankings in the downhill when she arrived in Cortina. “I think what I was able to achieve was more than anyone expected to begin with. … This year was incredible and so worth everything.” MDT/AP