- Tiger Woods is awake and recovering from surgery for injuries sustained during a car crash.
- Woods had multiple injuries to his right lower extremity following the crash on Tuesday.
- Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva said Woods was “lucky to be alive.”
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Tiger Woods is awake and recovering after a long surgery following a major car crash in Los Angeles, a statement on his Twitter account said.
Woods was involved in a single-car crash on Tuesday morning when his car rolled over on the side of the road in Ranchos Palos Verdes in south Los Angeles County.
The statement said Woods had surgery for injuries on his right leg and ankle.
“Mr. Woods suffered significant orthopaedic injuries to his right lower extremity that were treated during emergency surgery by Orthopaedic trauma specialists at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, a level 1 trauma center.” said Dr. Anish Mahajan, the chief medical officer and interim CEO at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. “Comminuted open fractures affecting both the upper and lower portions of the tibia and fibula bones were stabilized by inserting a rod into the tibia.”
Comminuted open fractures are when a bone has broken in more than one place and has pierced the skin.
Mahajan continued: "Additional injuries to the bones of the foot and ankle were stabilized with a combination of screws and pins. Trauma to the muscles and soft-tissue of the leg required surgical release of the covering of the muscle to relieve pressure due to swelling."
Earlier on Tuesday, Chief Daryl Osby of the LA County Fire Department said Woods was in "serious condition" after the crash.
"If the injuries were more dramatic and they couldn't control an airway, then they would have transported him to the nearest facility, but the fact that he was stable enough to be transported to a hospital further away - which was the most appropriate hospital to be transported [to] because of the nature of the injuries, the nature of the incident, says that it was a very serious injury. He met trauma center criteria, but he wasn't so serious that he needed to be transported to [the] nearest hospital for immediate life-saving procedures," Osby said.
During a press conference on Tuesday, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said that there was no initial evidence of driver impairment.
Villanueva said Woods, who was driving at a "relatively greater speed than normal," was "lucky to be alive."
Have a news tip? Contact this reporter at [email protected]
