Lindsey Vonn has admitted she nearly went ‘insane’ while recovering in an Italian hospital following the horrifying Winter Olympics crash that nearly cost her a leg.
In a new interview with Vanity Fair, the skier has described in harrowing detail how much pain she was in and revealed it was a Team USA doctor who performed the crucial surgery that spared her left leg.
The USA icon, 41, made a miraculous comeback at Milan-Cortina last month only to suffer a horrific broken leg 13 seconds into her run in the women’s downhill final on February 8. She had already torn her ACL before the Games.
After the first of five surgeries, Vonn suffered from compartment syndrome which left doctors facing a race against time to avoid having to amputate the limb. It was Tom Hackett, the head physician for Team USA Ski and Snowboard, who performed the vital fasciotomy.
Following multiple surgeries in both Italy and the United States, the skiing legend was allowed to return home to Utah on March 1, almost a month after the crash happened.
Speaking to Vanity Fair, Vonn admitted the pain is ‘seared into my brain’ and it took everything she had to not go insane while in hospital in the Italian city of Treviso.
Lindsey Vonn has given harrowing details of her shocking Winter Olympics crash to Vanity Fair
Vonn needed five surgeries in total after she came dangerously close to losing her leg
Detailing an initial CT scan at the Olympic clinic before they even went to the hospital, Vonn said: ‘Halfway through, I started sweating. I was just in such extreme pain.
‘I screamed at the top of my lungs: Get me out. It just wouldn’t dissipate. It wouldn’t let up. It’s seared into my brain.’
After flying to Treviso via helicopter, they were unable to land at the hospital at first because paparazzi had gathered on the helipad. When they eventually touched down, a team of 20 doctors and nurses were ready to treat Vonn.
The first surgery went ‘great’, according to Hackett, but Vonn later woke up in the middle of the night screaming louder than she had initially after the crash.
Her leg was swelling, thanks to the compartment syndrome, and the pain was not being reduced by large amounts of fentanyl, morphine and oxycodone.
Detailing the decision to operate again, Hackett added: ‘There was a very significant chance that she was going to lose all function of her leg, if not the leg itself. Best-case scenario in those situations is, you might keep your leg, but it’s going to be useless.’
Hackett successfully performed the fasciotomy but her entire experience in that hospital in Treviso, of being in such agonizing pain and on vast amounts of medication, has left Vonn with psychological scars.
She recalls how nurses were checking on her every three hours, there were other patients on the ward with her and the lights stayed on until 11pm. Vonn says: ‘It took everything I had for it to not drive me insane.’
The skiing legend suffered a broken left leg after she crashed in the women’s downhill
The 41-year-old later fired back at the ‘haters’ who said she was ‘selfish’ to ski at the Games
When she finally returned home to Park City in Utah, Vonn was sent emotional letters from the likes of David Beckham, Jannik Sinner, Tom Brady and Prince William.
A segment of Prince William’s letter shared in the interview reads: ‘The way you wrote about stepping into the starting gate with courage and no regrets says so much about your resilience.’
Vonn has since proven that she has bounced back faster than fans expected as she showed off her incredible progress. The former gold medalist was back in the gym last week, sharing a video of her workout to social media on Saturday.
Her current rehabilitation schedule includes a two-hour physio session every day, followed by two hours in a hyperbaric chamber and then a gym workout back at home.
When asked if she is even thinking about returning to the slopes once again, she added: ‘I don’t like to close the door on anything, because you just never know what’s going to happen.
‘It’s hard to tell with this injury. It’s so f***ed up. I really feel like that was a horrible last run to end my career on. I only made it 13 seconds. But they were a really good 13 seconds.’
