Lindsey Vonn explains how surgeon Tom Hackett saved her from amputation after Olympic crash

On Instagram, American skier and three-time Olympic medalist Lindsey Vonn revealed she almost had her left leg amputated following a crash in the women's downhill event at the Milan Cortina Olympics.

Lindsey Vonn explains how a surgeon saved her from amputation

Vonn fractured the tibia in her left leg during the wreck. She explained there were further complications. 

"I had compartment syndrome. And 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, and it basically crushes everything in the compartment," Vonn said Monday. "All the muscles and nerves and tendons, it all kind of dies. And doctor Tom Hackett saved my life. He saved my leg from being amputated."  

Vonn said Hackett, an orthopedic surgeon, was on site because she had previously torn the ACL in her left knee. After the skier's injury, he conducted a fasciotomy, a standard procedure for treating compartment syndrome, to save her left leg. That's when a surgeon cuts into connective tissue under the skin to relieve pressure, restore blood flow and prevent tissue death. 

"He filleted it open [and] let it breathe, and he saved me," she said. 

What's next for Lindsey Vonn? 

Vonn, who also broke her right ankle during the crash, is out of the hospital. She now faces a long and challenging recovery process. 

"Now I will focus on rehab and progressing from a wheelchair to crutches in a few weeks," the 41-year-old said. "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."

Considering the severity of the injury, it's now fair to ask whether Vonn's camp should have stopped her from competing in the Olympics. However, she said she had no regrets. 

Vonn added she wishes her Olympics had ended differently. But the most important thing for the skier is that it didn't end with an amputation.