Lindsey Vonn Says Doctor ‘Saved My Leg’ In Emotional Post-Hospital Video
Lindsey Vonn he’s finally out of the hospital and ready to share everything he’s endured in the past two weeks – including almost losing his leg.
“Finally out of the hospital!!! 🙌🏻,” Vonn, 41, captioned her video update, which was posted to Instagram on Monday, February 23. “After almost two weeks in a hospital bed almost motionless, I’m finally healed enough to move into a hotel. Not home yet, but it’s a big step!”
Vonn clocked 13 seconds in the women’s downhill event at the 2026 Winter Olympics, where she competed with a completely torn ACL. He was airlifted to hospital, where he underwent multiple surgeries shortly after the accident.
He went into more detail about his ordeal in the video, revealing that he suffered a compound tibia fracture, a fractured fibular head, a fractured tibial plateau and a fractured ankle.
“It’s been a tough journey and the most painful and challenging injury I’ve had in my life a hundred times,” Vonn said.
He also revealed that he had compartment syndrome, where pressure builds up inside the muscle tissue, preventing blood flow to his leg.
“Dr Tom Hackett he saved my leg,” Vonn continued. “He saved my leg from amputation. He did what’s called a fasciotomy, where he opened both sides of my leg and opened it so I could talk, let it breathe, and he saved me.”
He continued, “I always talk about it [how] everything happens for a reason, but if I hadn’t torn my ACL, which I would have torn anyway in this crash, if I hadn’t, Tom wouldn’t be here. He wouldn’t have been able to save my leg, so I feel very lucky and very grateful to him, for the six-hour operation he put in on Wednesday to reconstruct it, which went amazingly well.”
Vonn later described the “excruciating” pain she was in before describing the “long road” she faced to recover.
“I’m in a wheelchair right now, I don’t move,” she said. “I’m going to be in a wheelchair for a while because I broke my right ankle too. So hopefully I can walk on crutches eventually but we’ll see. I’ll probably be on crutches for two months but I’ll be ready to work on the rehabilitation and see what I can do and take it one step at a time like I always do.”
Vonn ended her review by thanking the medical staff who treated her and everyone who has supported her since her accident.
“It will be a long road but I keep fighting, I keep going, I have no regrets and I appreciate all the love and support. It’s been great,” he said. “I’d rather go down swinging than not try at all and I think what I was able to achieve was more than expected to begin with.”
Vonn also revealed in the caption that it will take “about a year” for her bones to heal, which is when she will decide if she wants the metal removed from her leg. Then, finally, he’ll have surgery to repair his torn ACL, which he sustained before the 2026 Olympics.
