Swim champ 'great' after severing spine

Six-time Olympic gold medallist Amy Van Dyken Rouen has posted a photograph of herself smiling from her hospital bed just days after severing her spine in a quad bike accident.

"Doing great today," the 46-year-old wrote beside the Instagram photo. "My room is the most decorated in ICU. Thx for ur thoughts & prayers!"

Van Dyken and husband Tom Rouen, an NFL player, were driving back from dinner in Arizona on Friday night when Van Dyken's bike hit a curb, throwing her down an embankment and breaking her back.

Rouen raced to her side, lifting her head so she could breathe and keeping her stable until a helicopter arrived.

She told emergency staff she could not feel her legs and was airlifted to a local hospital where she underwent surgery.

"Amy awoke within hours of surgery acting like her typical spunky, boisterous, ebullient self and has spent the last 24 hours entertaining her family and her medical staff in the ICU," Rouen said in a statement.

"Amy has a long, trying road ahead of her, but as anyone who knows her can attest, her unparalleled mental strength and determination will propel her. She is a fighter."

The retired athlete won four gold medals at the 1996 Olympics, in the 100m butterfly, 50m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle relay and 4x100m medley relay.

She won two more relay golds in 2000.

Source: Arizona Republic

Author: Erin Tennant, Approving editor: Martin Zavan