, external<\/span><\/a> she paid tribute to her surgeon for saving her leg and described the injury as “the most extreme, painful and challenging” of her career. <\/p>\nVon said her leg was “in pieces” and that she had compartment syndrome, a pressure inside a muscle, which restricts blood flow – and that the surgeon performed a fasciotomy, an emergency operation, to relieve the pressure.<\/p>\n
“Dr Tom Hackett saved my leg – he saved it from being amputated,” she said.<\/p>\n
“He cut open both sides of my leg, so it was open and let it breathe so to speak. He saved me.”<\/p>\n
Vonn, who returned to the United States last week<\/a> after four operations in Italy, said she has now left hospital and been moved to a hotel, describing it as a “huge step”.<\/p>\nShe added that she will be in a wheelchair “for a while” because in addition to the broken leg, she has also broken her ankle.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n