Madison Burgess
Lindsey Vonn has given a health update following her horrific crash during the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics earlier this month.
The 41-year-old American Olympic skier crashed out of the women's downhill race on 8 February, somersaulting off the course, before being airlifted to hospital.
It was later revealed that the athlete, who was already competing with a ruptured ACL, had broken her leg during the fall and, since then, has undergone multiple operations.
Now, updating her followers on how she's doing, Vonn shared that the terrifying accident almost led to her leg being amputated, and thanked the doctor who saved it.
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In a video on Instagram on Monday (23 February), the Olympian confirmed that she is out of the hospital, but described the injury as 'by far the most extreme, painful and challenging' she has ever had, adding that 'everything was in pieces'.
Vonn confirmed she had compartment syndrome and thanked Doctor Tom Hackett for saving her leg through a fasciotomy - an emergency surgical procedure to cut through the fascia surrounding a group of muscles to relieve pressure.
For those unfamiliar, as per the NHS, compartment syndrome is an increase in pressure inside a muscle, which restricts blood flow and causes pain. If it happens suddenly, it can be serious and needs treatment as soon as possible.
Vonn told her 3.5 million Instagram followers: "Compartment syndrome is when you have so much trauma to one area of your body that there’s too much blood and it gets stuck, it basically crushes everything in the compartment. All the muscles, nerves, and tendons, it all kind of dies.
“Doctor Tom Hackett saved my leg. He saved my leg from being amputated. He did what’s called a fasciotomy, where he cut open both sides of my leg, let it breathe, and he saved me."
As well as her broken leg, Vonn also revealed that she has broken her ankle and had undergone a blood transfusion as she had a 'low haemoglobin' due to the blood loss from her surgeries.
Speaking about her next steps, she wrote on Instagram: "Now I will focus on rehab and progressing from a wheelchair to crutches in a few weeks.
"It will take around a year for all of the bones to heal, and then I will decide if I want to take out all the metal or not, and then go back into surgery and finally fix my ACL. It will be a long road, but I’ll get there. At least I’m out of the hospital."
Remaining positive, the skier added: "I always talk about everything happens for a reason, but if I hadn’t torn my ACL, which I would’ve torn anyway with this crash, if I hadn’t have done that, Tom wouldn’t have been there. He wouldn’t have been able to save my leg."
Vonn was inundated with messages of support from her fans and fellow athletes, including from footballing icon Cristiano Ronaldo.
The sportsman penned: "Champions are defined by the moments they win, and the moments they refuse to give up. @lindseyvonn the mountains you conquered were never bigger than the strength you carry. Keep fighting. Legends always rise."