Vonn says injury could have led to amputation

COLORADO: American ski star Lindsey Vonn, who suffered a horrific fall in the Olympic downhill in Cortina, on Monday thanked the doctor who saved her leg.

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American skier Lindsey Vonn.

(AFP)

Vonn posted a video on Instagram including graphic images of her injury and a surgery video, saying she had been discharged from hospital.

Vonn suffered a set of fractures in her left leg in the fall on Feb 8.

“Everything was in pieces,” she said.

She underwent a series of operations in Italy before returning to the United States where Tom Hackett, a Colorado-based orthopaedic surgeon who works with the US ski team, performed a six-hour operation and “saved my leg from being amputated”.

She said, the injury had caused “compartment syndrome” which put her leg at risk.