VAIL, Colo. (AP) — American ski racer Lindsey Vonn revealed Monday that a crash during the women’s downhill at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics nearly resulted in the amputation of her left leg.
Vonn, 41, shared details of the harrowing incident and subsequent medical intervention in an Instagram post, explaining that her injuries extended far beyond the initially reported complex tibia fracture sustained on February 8th after clipping a gate and losing control.
The crash led to a severe case of compartment syndrome, a condition where excessive pressure builds up within a muscle, restricting blood flow and potentially causing permanent damage if not addressed promptly. “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 explained in her post.
Vonn credited Dr. Tom Hackett, an orthopedic surgeon affiliated with both Vonn and Team USA, with performing a life-saving fasciotomy – a surgical procedure to relieve pressure – that ultimately saved her leg. “He filleted it open (and) let it breathe, and he saved me,” she wrote.
Remarkably, Vonn noted that Dr. Hackett was even present at the Olympics due to her competing despite tearing the ACL in her left knee shortly before the games began. “If I hadn’t have done that, Tom wouldn’t have been there (and he) wouldn’t have been able to save my leg,” she said.
In addition to the leg injury, Vonn also broke her right ankle in the same crash. She described the ordeal as “quite the journey and by far the most extreme and painful and challenging injury I’ve ever faced in my entire life times 100.”
Vonn underwent multiple surgeries during a week-long hospital stay in Treviso, Italy, receiving a blood transfusion to address significant blood loss and raise her hemoglobin levels. She expressed gratitude to both Dr. Hackett and the Italian medical team for their efforts to repair her leg, which she described as being “in pieces” following the accident.
Currently confined to a wheelchair and described as “very much immobile,” Vonn is now focused on rehabilitation, with the goal of eventually transitioning to crutches. She anticipates approximately one year for the bones in her left leg to heal before doctors can address the torn ACL, which was not directly involved in the initial crash.
“It’s going to be a long road,” Vonn acknowledged. “I always fight and we keep going.” Despite the severity of her injuries, Vonn stated she has “no regrets” about her decision to return to competition after a six-year retirement or to ski at the Olympics despite the pre-existing knee injury.
“I wish it had ended differently, but I’d rather go down swinging than not try at all,” she said, adding that her performance this year was “incredible and so worth everything.” Vonn likened the injuries to “one blip on the radar.”
Her father, Alan Kildow, had previously expressed a desire for her to retire following the accident, according to the Associated Press. Vonn concluded by stating, “Life is life and we have to take the punches that come. Going to do the best I can with this one. It really knocked me down. But I’m like Rocky. I’ll just keep getting back up.”