Lindsey Vonn undergoes ninth surgery following Winter Olympics crash
Ski racer Lindsey Vonn is "praying" that the ninth surgery she has had since suffering serious leg injuries following a crash at the Winter Olympics earlier this year will be her last.
Lindsey Vonn is undergoing her ninth surgery since her Winter Olympics crash and is "praying" it will be her last.
The 42-year-old ski racer suffered serious leg injuries following the crash during the downhill event at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics in February and has expressed hope that she is reaching the end of the road in her lengthy recovery process.
Lindsey, who had ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) a week before the Games, captioned an Instagram video posted on Monday (09.11.26): "This day has been looming on my calendar for a while now... and the time has finally come.
"I've been nervous and anxious about it... but at the same time excited to hopefully put this behind me."
Vonn explained that her surgeon would be removing the "plates and screws" that went into her leg to repair the complex tibia fracture she suffered in the crash and would finally be replacing the torn ACL.
The 2010 Winter Olympic gold medallist said: "(We're) just basically removing all the hardware so we can put in a new ACL, because I don't have an ACL still. Cause of all the plates, we just couldn't put it in.
"So I've been waiting all of these nine months so my bone could heal and we could fix the ACL, and my bones healed, which is great news."
However, Lindsey still has another long recovery process to get through.
She said: "But obviously now that means another six to nine months (of recovery) like a normal ACL (surgery). But obviously, when you take out all the screws, that leaves holes in your bone as well, so those have to heal. But fingers crossed."
Vonn previously revealed that she almost had her leg amputated after the crash due to complications.
In a post on Instagram, she explained: "I had a complex tibia fracture, I also fractured my fibia head and the reason it was so complex was because I had compartment syndrome.
"Compartment syndrome is when you have so much trauma to one area that there is too much blood and it gets stuck. It basically crushes everything - muscles, nerves, tendons, it dies.
"Dr Tom Hackett saved my leg from being amputated. He did what is called a fasciotomy, he cut open both sides of my leg and let it breathe and he saved me.
"It will take around a year for all of the bones to heal and then I will decide if I want to take out all the metal or not, and then go back into surgery and finally fix my ACL. Life is life, we have to take the punches as they come."
