Vonn thanks doctor who 'saved leg from being amputated'

The American superstar skier broke her leg in a fall during the women's downhill race on February 8 and has subsequently undergone multiple operations. 

In a video on Instagram on Monday, Vonn confirmed that she is out of hospital and described the injury as "by far the most extreme, painful and challenging" she has ever had, adding that "everything was in pieces". 

The 41-year-old said she had suffered compartment syndrome and credited Doctor Tom Hackett for saving her leg through a fasciotomy. 

"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 muscle and nerves and tendons, it all kind of dies," Vonn said. 

"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." 

Vonn, who entered the Olympics having ruptured her ACL in the build-up, 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." 

In addition to 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. 

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." 

Australian Associated Press