But her dreams of competing in one final Winter Olympics came to a brutal end when she suffered another crash, just 13 seconds into her final downhill run. The incident required Vonn to be airlifted from the piste, and now the Team USA veteran has offered a full picture of what she went through following that crash.
In a video posted to her Instagram account, Vonn outlined the extent of the damage she suffered, and how the initial ACL rupture may have actually helped her in the end, because Dr. Tom Hackett was already on site to help her following the second crash.
“I had a complex tibia fracture, I also fractured my fibia head and the reason it was so complex was because I had compartment syndrome,” Vonn explained in the video. “Compartment syndrome is when you have so much trauma to one area that there is too much blood and it gets stuck. It basically crushes everything – muscles, nerves, tendons, it dies.
“Dr. Tom Hackett saved my leg from being amputated. He did what is called a fasciotomy, he cut open both sides of my leg and let it breathe, and he saved me.”
Vonn then discussed the earlier ACL injury, and how she was “grateful” for Dr. Hackett being on site already for the second crash.
“If I hadn’t torn my ACL, which I would have done anyways in this crash, Doctor Tom Hackett wouldn’t have been there,” Vonn said. “He wouldn’t have been able to save my leg.
“He saved my leg from being amputated. I always talk about everything happening for a reason… I feel very lucky and grateful for him, for this six-hour surgery.”
Regarding the compartment syndrome, this can result in the wake of a significant, traumatic injury. In response to such an event, the body “floods” the area with lymphatic fluid and white blood cells, as a preventative measure to guard against additional injury.
But when a person suffers extensive trauma, as Vonn did, the swelling that follows as the body tries to guard against future injury is so profound that it ends up cutting off the flow of blood to the lower leg. The procedure that Vonn underwent as a result, a fasciotomy, allows that swelling to expand further, so blood vessels could open up and not cause muscle death.
That is what prevented Vonn from losing her leg.
Here is Vonn’s video in full:
All the best to Vonn during her recovery.
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