Lindsey Vonn’s Open Fracture Explained: Surgeries, Timeline and Knee Damage

Olympic legend Lindsey Vonn was airlifted from the course Sunday after crashing less than 15 seconds into her run in the Alpine women’s downhill event.

The 41-year-old skier clipped a pole early in the race and went down hard, screaming in pain as she lay in the snow before medical personnel transported her by helicopter for treatment. Vonn later revealed she had undergone her third surgery since the crash.

“I had my 3rd surgery today and it was successful. Success today has a completely different meaning than it did a few days ago,” Vonn wrote on Instagram. “I’m making progress and while it is slow, I know I’ll be ok.”

The crash came with Vonn competing at the Olympics after tearing her ACL during a World Cup event in late January.

According to Dr. David Chao, Pro Football Doc, the external fixator visible on Vonn’s leg suggests a complex open fracture involving significant knee damage.

“That is for open fractures — complex, open, or what they used to call compound fractures,” Chao said. “You may see at the bottom of that wound a wound vac and either fasciotomies or open wounds to prevent infection. The reason they put that erector set on is so you don’t get an Alex Smith situation — an open wound where infection spreads, you close it, and the infection gets worse.”

Chao explained that because the external fixator spans from the tibia to the femur and crosses the knee joint, the injury likely includes major structural damage.

“The fact that the erector set goes from her tibia to her femur and across the knee joint means she has significant damage to her knee — whether it’s a condylar fracture, tibial plateau fracture, knee dislocation or some sort of instability,” he said. “In addition to her ACL, there’s going to be soft tissue injury as well. This is significant.”

“She will at least have one more surgery to definitively remove the erector set and fix the problem, but it’s likely there will be multiple procedures still,” Chao said. “She’s reportedly had three surgeries and will probably need — and I say this in the kindest way — a dozen surgeries in terms of washouts and debridements.”