The skiing champion has been transferred to a hotel: “Now I will focus on transitioning to crutches in a few weeks. It will be a long road.”
Lindsey Vonn has been discharged from the hospital. Following an injury to her left tibia during the downhill race at the Milano Cortina Olympics, the skiing champion underwent five surgeries, the most recent in the United States after leaving the hospital in Treviso.
Vonn Leaves Hospital: “It Will Accept a Year for the Bones to Heal”
Vonn, as she has done in recent weeks, updated her fans via a post on Instagram. “Finally, I’m out of the hospital!!! After almost 2 weeks spent in a bed almost completely immobile, I’m finally well enough to move to a hotel,” Vonn recounts in a video. “It’s not quite like being at home, but it’s a huge step! I hope I’ve explained my injury well enough. I’m not a doctor, so if I don’t explain something perfectly, please forgive me. When the injury occurred, the situation was quite challenging in many ways, but it was eventually brought under control. Once again, thank you Dr. Tom Hackett.”
However, the road to recovery is still long: “Now I will focus on rehabilitation and transitioning from a wheelchair to crutches in a few weeks. It will take about a year for all the bones to heal, and then I will decide whether to remove all the screws and plates, return to the operating room, and finally repair my cruciate ligament. It will be a long road, but I will get there.” Vonn also described the frightening details of the injury: “When you suffer such a severe trauma in an area of the body, blood accumulates and gets blocked, basically crushing everything. The surgeon opened it up and let it breathe, and he saved my leg. If I hadn’t had the injury to my cruciate ligament, Tom wouldn’t have been there and wouldn’t have been able to save my leg.”
