Paralympic bronze medalist snowboarder Amy Purdy was released from a hospital after a week-long stay due to a serious muscle condition that can severely damage kidneys, according to her social media.
Purdy, a previous kidney transplant recipient from her father, was diagnosed with Rhabdomyolysis after noticing swelling in her arm following a preseason workout of pull-ups.
“Having a friend in the hospital with this condition last year, I rushed to the ER where they confirmed I had it too,” Purdy wrote. “I almost didn’t come to the hospital when I did because my symptoms were so mild, had I of decided to sleep it off l most likely would have had major kidney failure or even gone into shock by the next morning.”
Purdy wrote on Monday that she had been released from the hospital and would focus on healing.
“The recovery on this is supposed to take some time since the muscle fibers in both upper arms were damaged,” she wrote. “But all of this is minor compared to what it could have been!”
Purdy, 36, survived bacterial meningitis in 1999 but lost both her legs and later needed a kidney from her father at age 20.
Purdy is an innovator. She built her own snowboard and is seen as instrumental in getting her sport into the Paralympic program beginning in 2014.
A model, she has been in a Madonna music video, a Super Bowl commercial, ESPN the Magazine’s Body Issue and competed on “The Amazing Race” in 2012.
