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US Olympic legend Lindsey Vonn said Monday she nearly lost her left leg and needed a blood transfusion after suffering a devastating accident at the Winter Games.
Vonn shared her latest update in a video posted to her Instagram. She described the last two weeks as “by far the most extreme, painful and difficult injury” she had ever faced and thanked the doctor who operated on her leg.
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Lindsey Vonn of Team USA during course inspection before downhill training at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics at the Tofane Alpine Ski Center on February 6, 2026 in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. (Daniel Kopatsch/VOIGT/GettyImages)
“Basically, I had a complex fracture of my tibia,” she said. “I also fractured my femur head, my tibia plateau, it was kind of all in pieces. And the reason it was so complex was because I had compartment syndrome. And compartment syndrome is when you have so much trauma in one area of your body that there’s too much blood and it gets stuck and crushes everything in the compartment. So all the muscles and nerves and tendons, everything dies.
“Dr. Tom Hackett saved my leg. He saved my leg from amputation and did what’s called a fasciotomy where he opened both sides of my leg, kind of meshed it open, let it breathe and he saved me.”
LINDSEY VONN TAKES “BABY STEPS” AFTER LAST SURGERY WHICH LASTED MORE THAN 6 HOURS: “LOTS OF PLATES AND SCREWS”
Lindsey Vonn races down the course during official women’s alpine skiing training at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, February 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati))
Vonn added that she lost a lot of blood during the surgeries and needed a blood transfusion.
“I feel very lucky and grateful to him, for the six-hour surgery he had on Wednesday to rebuild it, which went incredibly well. I was in the hospital longer than I had hoped because I had very low hemoglobin from all the blood loss from all the surgeries. I was really struggling. The pain was a little uncontrollable. I had to have a blood transfusion and that helped a lot. I passed the milestone and now I’m out,” she said.
Vonn said she hopes to transition from a wheelchair to crutches soon, but expects to use crutches for at least two months.
“It will be a long road but I will get there. At least I am leaving the hospital,” she added in the caption of her message on the social network.
Vonn suffered a fall during the women’s downhill event in alpine skiing. She had persevered despite a torn ACL to even have a chance at a medal.
Lindsey Vonn of the United States is airlifted after an accident during a women’s alpine ski race at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
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However, her injury forced her to be evacuated from the mountain by helicopter. She underwent several surgeries before being returned to the United States.
