Vonn discloses that she almost lost her leg following the dreadful Olympic accident.
Lindsey Vonn has come out to show how close she has come to losing her leg after the crash that had cost her the downhill race at the winter Olympics in Italy earlier this month.
The 41-year-old American icon has also been through several surgeries following severe leg and ankle fractures that she sustained in the women downhill on 8 February. In an Instagram video that was posted on Monday Vonn said that the injury was the most brutal experience of her career and that her surgeon is why she is not amputated.
Vonn suffered compartment syndrome, which is a life-threatening condition whereby the pressure accumulates in the muscle and the person loses blood to the muscle area, which was as described by Vonn; My leg was basically in pieces. Doctors also did an emergency fasciotomy to debride both sides of her leg in order to debride the pressure and stop permanent damage.
My leg was saved by Dr Tom Hackett, said Vonn. He literally rescued it at the hands of being amputated. He unscrewed it open to allow breathing. He saved me.”
Vonn has now been discharged of hospital, having spent four operations in Italy, and after this she has returned to the United States, where she has entered a hotel, which she termed a giant stride. Nevertheless, her recovery is uncertain and lengthy. She is also having a broken ankle along with the fractured leg and she will use a wheelchair as long as her leg is not completely healed.
It was only nine days after she had torn apart the ligaments in her left knee that she crashed only 13 seconds through her Olympic downhill run in Cortina. She was flown out of the field and was subsequently diagnosed to have a complex tibia fracture.
At home in the US, Vonn had a six-hour reconstructive surgery and also needed blood transfusion because she experienced serious bleeding. Although she claims that she has rounded a corner, there is still restricted mobility.
I am in a wheel-chair now and am so immobile, said she. It is hoped that I will be on crutches in a few days but I shall need them not less than a couple of months.
Vonn continued to say that even with health, the process of bone healing can take up to one year, at which point she would then determine whether to remove the metal implants in her leg and have another operation to repair her ACL, which is just a chapter in a long process of recovery that is yet to be completed.
