Ashley Judd is recovering from a “catastrophic accident” in which she almost lost her leg and is currently unable to walk.
The 52-year-old actress and United Nations Goodwill Ambassador is in an ICU trauma unit in a South African hospital after breaking her leg in four places and suffering nerve damage during a bad fall in the Democratic Republic of Congo , where she has been doing bonobos conservation work. It took him 55 hours to get from the rainforest to the hospital, where he had surgery to save his right leg, which suffered major tissue damage. Although there is no time limit for her recovery and her leg is “crippled”, she swears that she “will walk again”, saying she believes in modern science and miracles.
From her hospital bed, she explained the accident in an Instagram post and then in a live chat with journalist Nicholas Kristof. THE Norma Jean and Marilyn star – an experienced “wild woman” who travels more than two months a year to the remote region, where her “life partner” runs a research camp to study endangered monkeys – said she “tripped over a tree fallen “in the dark. She left at 4:30 am, which she said was her normal routine, with two trackers working. The flashlight was not working well and there was a tree on the path that it took with a “powerful stride”, causing the injury.
Judd knew immediately that his leg was broken – and the “DNA of what a rainforest evacuation entails”. What followed was “55 incredibly distressing hours”. It started with just five hours on the forest floor, during which she was “howling like a wild animal” and biting a stick to control her pain because there was no medicine (not even ibuprofen), while one of the trackers went back to the camp for help. She remembered “going into shock” and “passing out” at times while waiting for the arrival of Martin Surbeck, who heads the camp for the Bonobo Kokolopori Research Project – which is about 2.5 miles from the nearest village on the Reserve Bonobo Kokolopori.
Judd, who said he “almost lost my leg”, had the bone restored and was carried out of the remote area in a net. The bone was restored again and she then took a six-hour ride on a motorcycle – with a driver, someone physically supporting her and Judd herself holding her broken shin. She spent the night in a hut, then flew to Kinshasa before being taken to South Africa, where she was hospitalized.
Judd – who joked that the hospital’s blood transfusions were better than his Wi-Fi while the conversation was interrupted – showed his trauma orthopedist’s handiwork while she was lying in bed on an external fixator, a surgical treatment where nails are attached to the bone with pins or screws. She also mentioned that her father, Michael Ciminella, was there. (Her mother is a singer, Naomi Judd.)
“At the moment, my right foot is crippled,” said Judd, who suffered massive soft tissue damage and will be on the device for at least 10 days. “It will take a while for this nerve to heal. And there will be intensive physical therapy … Of course, I will walk again because I am determined and I believe in modern science and I also believe in miracles. But there is really no deadline for [recovery]. I have a journey ahead of me. “
Judd described herself as “on the edge of my limit” during the ordeal, but she doesn’t want the story to be about a celebrity injury. So, she took the time to talk about her “privilege” during the experiment, as she could pay someone to take her out of the remote area and, eventually, 55 hours later, to a hospital. She also spoke about her union insurance that covers the costs of her recovery.
“If it were someone who lived there,” she said of the Congolese, “it would have been the end of your options”, due to limited medical care and extreme poverty. “The end of your leg – and probably your life.”
Judd asked for donations to the United Nations Population Fund for Friends, where she is raising funds for life-saving maternal health services for pregnant women, new mothers and newborns in the DRC.
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