Lindsey Vonn’s horrific leg injury was even more serious than originally realized.
The American skier said surgery saved her left leg from being amputated after she crashed during her downhill race on Feb. 8 at the Milano Cortina Olympics.
The complicated injury left Vonn with compartment syndrome in her leg, she said Monday in a four-minute Instagram video.
“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,” Vonn said.
The condition required Team USA physician Dr. Tom Hackett to perform a fasciotomy in which he “filleted” Vonn’s leg open and “let it breathe,” she said.