Sir Chris Hoy knows what Lindsey Vonn is going through after the Olympic skier’s devastating Olympic crash
Sir Chris Hoy has wished fellow broken leg victim Lindsey Vonn well after her horrific crash at the Winter Olympics. The skiing icon came close to losing a limb following the fall in the women’s downhill race in February and has undergone multiple operations.
She described the injury as “by far the most extreme, painful and challenging” she has ever had, adding that “everything was in pieces.” The 41-year-old revealed she had compartment syndrome and praised Dr Tom Hackett for saving her leg through a fasciotomy.
She said in an Instagram post: “Compartment syndrome is when you have so much trauma to one area of your body that there’s too much blood and it gets stuck, it basically crushes everything in the compartment.
“All the muscle and nerves and tendons, it all kind of dies. Doctor Tom Hackett saved my leg. He saved my leg from being amputated. He did what’s called a fasciotomy, where he cut open both sides of my leg, let it breathe and he saved me.”
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Hoy is all too familiar with compartment syndrome, having sustained a severely broken leg in a cycling accident last year. The six-time Olympic champion has kept on riding his bike while receiving treatment for prostate cancer.
READ MORE: Sir Chris Hoy warned leg may have to be amputated after ‘worst crash’ left him in hospitalREAD MORE: Lindsey Vonn shares the most devastating moment of her career after horrific Olympic injury
Speaking on his Sporting Midadventures podcast, he said: “Looking at all her fractures, the X-rays and the media coverage, it’s a very similar injury [to his], a tibia plateau fracture.
“I was looking at the metal work. To be fair, her plates were a little bit further down than mine, so she’s outdone me on that one!
“The doctors tell you that because of compartment syndrome, there is a risk of amputation for anyone in that situation. I was given the same warning. That’s one of the things they’re hyper-vigilant about.
“She’s right in the thick of it [recovery] now and my thoughts are with her and with anyone else with an injury like that because it’s not much fun.”
Vonn, who arrived at the Olympics having torn her ACL during the build-up, also sustained a fractured ankle and required a blood transfusion owing to the blood loss from her operations.
Discussing his own recovery from the crash, which he described as the worst of his life, Hoy added: “I’ve got a slight limp but on the bike, it’s the least painful, so I’m back doing two-and-a-half-hour rides.”
