Lanzinger loses left leg

The 27-year-old Austrian skier Matthias Lanzinger had to have his left foot amputed. Last weekend the unfortunate skier made a horrid crash in the Super-G. Doctors were not able to salvage his foot. Austrians blame the Norwegian medical rescue team for getting Lanzinger to the hospital too late.

Lanzinger had a concussion and broke his left leg in a fall in the World Cup Super-G race in Kvitfjell. He was air-lifted to a hospital in Oslo where he has undergone two operations since Sunday. At the hospital he was placed in an artificial coma to help treat his injuries but developed serious vascular problems.

Lanzinger lost his balance in the high-speed race and was knocked unconscious as his head hit a ski-pole marker. He then crashed to the ground and hurtled down into the safety-netting. "Unfortunately, his injury was very serious because it seems that his foot was twisted several times around its own axis and this really damaged the bone and soft tissue” Doctor Lars Engebretsen said.

On Tuesday the decision was made to amputate his lower left leg. The doctors stated that there was no alternative to the amputation. “Unfortunately we were unable to re-establish the blood circulation to his foot which has obliged us to take the decision to amputate" Engebretsen said.

Austrians scream bloody murder. They say the medical help came too late and the coordination of the rescue went all wrong. At first there wasn’t a helicopter on scene and when it finally came, they took Lanzinger to the wrong hospital. Eventually he was air-lifted to a hospital in Oslo where the first operation took place 6 hours after the crash.

Hannelore Glibert