Ski star feared leg amputation - "Worst pain I've ever experienced"

Created: 12/23/2022, 2:59 p.m

By: Antonio Jose Riether

After her knee operation, ski racer Lisa Hörnblad suddenly collapsed at the airport.

The Swede has now shared her nightmare story.

Stockholm - The Ski World Cup season has been running since the end of October, but while the athletes are racing, some colleagues are struggling with injuries.

Lisa Hörnblad is a ski racer who repeatedly has to deal with setbacks.

The Swede tore her second cruciate ligament at the beginning of the year.

During another operation a few days ago, there were complications – Hörnblad even feared an amputation.

Lisa Hörnblad: Skier collapsed at the airport - "couldn't move her leg"

The Pyeongchang Olympic participant suffered her first cruciate ligament rupture in her right knee in 2019, and in January 2022 she sustained the same injury in her right knee.

She celebrated her comeback in September, but the joy didn't last long.

During an operation in December, her knee should be cleaned, according to her own statement "nothing big", as Hörnblad wrote on Instagram.

A few "loose parts" were to be removed, but the operation turned out to be a nightmare.

She spoke up again on Tuesday.

Her knee felt much better after the operation and she was on her way to a training camp in Italy.

Then came the shock.

“I was already checking in at the airport when I suddenly got extreme pain in my knee.

After that it escalated.

I got really sick, got a high fever and couldn't move my leg and had to go to the hospital," the 26-year-old said on Instagram.

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Lisa Hörnblad: Knee had to be opened - "By far the worst pain"

The diagnosis followed in the hospital: “They found out that I had developed blood poisoning in my knee after the last operation.

They immediately had to open the knee to relieve the pressure and clean it," reports Hörnblad, adding: "The pain I had before they opened it the first time is by far the worst I've ever been in experienced in my life."

At the Swedish television station SVT, she went even further.

"I thought the doctors would have to amputate my leg.

It felt like it was going to explode,” said the seven-time Swedish champion.

Hörnblad wrote on Instagram that she was "still trying to understand and process this whole thing".

Lisa Hörnblad, left at the Ski World Cup in February 2019, is currently recovering from her infection.

© Bildbyran/imago/Screenshot Instagram (@lisahrnblad)

Lisa Hörnblad: In Garmisch-Partenkirchen she saved the life of an official

Hörnblad also left its mark in Germany.

In Garmisch-Partenkirchen, together with two Swedish teammates, she saved the life of a German official.

The 60-year-old man had suffered a heart attack in a gondola, whereupon the three ski racers provided first aid.

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was carried out until the rescue helicopter arrived.