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Lindsay Vonn She still has a long road to recovery ahead of her dramatic accident at the 2026 Winter Olympics, but it could have been much worse.
After multiple surgical repairs in Italy extensive damage Vaughan, 41, underwent surgery on her left leg and woke up in the middle of the night in the intensive care unit, screaming in agony as her leg couldn’t stop swelling.
“It was getting worse and she was not responding to large amounts of fentanyl, morphine, oxycodone, every narcotic you could imagine.” Dr. Tom HackettThe head physician for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team recalled in a report vanity fair Cover story published on Thursday, March 26.
Hackett could tell that Vaughn was experiencing compartment syndrome, a condition in which increased pressure in the legs restricts blood flow and causes severe nerve damage.
“I’m sure you’ve seen hot dogs on the grill or little kids. They get more and more swollen. And then all of a sudden, they burst. They burst. That’s basically what happens with compartment syndrome,” Hackett explained. “There’s a good chance she’ll lose all use of the leg, even the leg itself. In that case, the best-case scenario is that you might keep your leg, but it would be useless.”
Vaughn fainted from the pain but regained consciousness before surgery.
“Dr. Hackett was to my left. There was a group of doctors and nurses surrounding me,” she recalled. “He said, ‘Don’t worry, I’m going to save your leg. I got it. I’m scrubbing it.'”
Vaughn was put under anesthesia and Hackett performed a fasciotomy, which cuts the connective tissue around the muscle to relieve pressure.
After the initial surgery, Vaughan was still forced to undergo multiple surgeries to get the job done.
“Basically, it was all about saving her skin and muscles,” Hackett explains.
Now back home in the United States, Vaughan recalls the chaotic experience of arriving at the hospital after the crash – with a complete tear of her ACL – and the CT scan she will never forget.
Lindsey Vonn continues to share the highs and lows of her injury recovery with the Olympian’s millions of followers on social media. Vonn, 41, took to Instagram on Monday, March 16, to post a series of photos and videos from her ongoing recovery process. “Life lately…” she wrote in the caption of the post, which showed the legendary skier performing (…)
“Halfway through, I started sweating,” she told me. vanity fair. “I was in so much pain. I screamed at the top of my lungs: ‘Let me out’.‘It just won’t go away. It won’t relax. It’s burned into my brain. “
As for what comes next, Vonn hasn’t completely closed the door on returning to skiing again.
“I don’t know what my life will look like in two, three or four years,” she said. “I could have two kids by then. I could have no kids and want to compete again. I could live in Europe. I could do anything.”
Vaughn added, “It’s hard to put a finger on this injury. It was terrible. I really feel like that was a horrible last ditch effort to end my career.”
