American skier Lindsey Vonn has described how she nearly lost her leg following her crash in the women’s downhill at the Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina after having already ruptured her ACL.
The American revealed she had a complex tibia fracture, a fractured fibular head and a tibial plateau fracture, which caused compartment syndrome.
Vonn emotionally credited her surgeon, thanking him and the medical staff in Italy for all their efforts which meant she didn’t need an amputation.
“The reason why it was so complex was because I had compartment syndrome, which is when you have so much trauma to one area of your body that there’s too much blood and it gets stuck,” Vonn said.
“It basically crushes everything in the compartment, all the muscle and nerves and tendon dies.
“Dr Tom Hackett saved my leg. He opened both sides of my leg and basically filleted it open, let it breathe and saved me.
“I always say everything happens for a reason, and if I hadn’t already torn my ACL, Tom wouldn’t have been there, he wouldn’t have been able to save my leg.”
Lindsey Vonn crashed into a gate during the women’s downhill
The five-time Olympian also revealed that she will be in a wheelchair for a while because she also broke her right ankle, so is currently unable to use crutches.
She detailed how proud she is to be on Team USA despite it not being how she wanted to end her Olympics at 41 years old, and she is still proud of what she achieved this year despite her crash.
Lindsey Vonn was airlifted away after her crash
“I wish it had ended differently really,” Vonn added. “But I’d rather go down swinging rather than not try at all. I think what I was able to achieve was more than anyone had expected.
“This was just one blip on the radar, one thing I wish didn’t happen.
“But life is life, we have to take the punches as they come. It really knocked me down, but I’m like Rocky, I’ll just keep getting back up.”
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