Ashley Judd has traveled regularly to Congo over the years to study the population of endangered bonobos with her life partner. That’s where she was this week when she fell while walking through the forest in an incident that almost made her lose her leg.
The actor and activist opened up about the accident and the 55-hour ordeal in two Instagram Live videos presented by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof on Friday. Judd, 52, told her story of her hospital bed in South Africa, where she was transferred.
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“She had a horrible accident in Congo and we are going to talk about that, but also about the lessons learned and what we can do to improve health there,” said Kristof in his introduction before Judd joined Instagram Live. “I think the idea is to start from what happened to Ashley to make the conversation broader.”
When Judd appeared in the video, Kristof said he was happy to see her with two legs and commented that she had been through “a lot of pain”.
Despite the pain, Judd replied, “I think I would say that I am in love. I feel a lot of compassion and a lot of gratitude.” She explained that she was talking about an ICU trauma unit in a South African hospital. because the facilities in Congo were not equipped to deal with “serious and catastrophic injuries” like the one she suffered.
“The difference between a Congolese person and me is the catastrophe insurance that allowed me 55 hours after my accident reached an operating table in South Africa,” she said.
Judd said that widespread poverty in Congo means that there is often no electricity or running water, let alone access to “a simple pill to kill pain when you break a leg in four places and have nerve damage”.
She said she hopes people will help support the local Congolese population and learn about their work in the forest with bonobos (a type of great ape) after hearing their story.
“They are highly threatened. About 15,000 remain and there are only in the Congo,” she said, calling them our “closest living relatives” because of their similarities to humans. “We have a lot to learn from them.”
Judd said that she and her life partner visit Congo twice a year. She had recently returned there and this week, she was walking with trackers (researchers) early in the morning when the accident occurred. “I was doing what I always do. I got up at 4:30 am with two of our trackers who are just these brilliant, first-class men walking in the dark and my headlamp had new batteries, but it was a little low,” she recalled, telling Kristof that she has experience walking in low light.
“But accidents happen,” she explains. “There was a fallen tree on the way, which I didn’t see, and I was taking a very strong step and I just fell off that tree.”
In an Instagram post, she described the incident as a “catastrophic accident” and added that “I almost lost my leg”.
“What happened next was 55 incredibly distressing hours,” she said in her interview with Kristof, reporting that her ordeal started with five hours lying on the forest floor, biting a stick and howling “like a wild animal” while another tracker ran for help.
Judd said that she was going into shock and passing out, that her teeth were chattering and that she started to sweat cold.
After several hours, she was carried out of the Congolese rainforest in a hammock and back to camp, while her “brothers”, the Congolese men she worked with, were “encouraging her spirit”.
The “A Dog’s Way Home” star explained how she had to endure a treacherous ride on a motorcycle with a man helping her. “It took courage for someone to do this to me because they had to physically hold me. It was a man driving and then a man sitting behind me. … I had to physically hold the top of my shattered shin together and we did this for six hours.
“I was at the limit of my limit,” she said, but at the same time, she acknowledges her privilege, saying that if she had not been a famous actress, it would have been the end of her leg and probably her life.
At one point, Kristof lost connection with Judd after the wi-fi in his hospital was interrupted. He explained to viewers how the Instagram Live interview with Judd took place. He said he received a text message from Judd saying that she wanted to tell her story and shed light on Congo and encourage people to support the people and animals of the Central African country.
When Kristof reconnected with Judd in a second Instagram Live video, she showed him the external fixator on her leg, and said the doctors said here that, because there was “massive soft tissue damage” that “we can’t really touch on the bones for another 10 days. “
“It’s a beautiful thing,” she said of the device.
Judd told Kristof that when there is a crisis like this for ordinary Congolese people, they sit and wait for someone who may have some knowledge to try to restart their leg. Judd also showed Kristof the stick she bit to deal with the pain a second time.
“It is primitive,” she said of her experience. “They couldn’t offer me ibuprofen. But they offered me a deep understanding because they know what this suffering is like.”
In the video interview, Judd encouraged people to donate to the United Nations Population Fund or UNFPA, which works to build mobile clinics in areas like the Congo and provide “safe delivery kits” for pregnant women who do not have access to obstetrics. or medical care.
She concluded with a special message of thanks to the many people who helped her during her painful period. “I said thank you very much, Daddy Freddy and it was just that beautiful act, this profound act of human service, and I wouldn’t have done it without Daddy Freddies along the way. And so I just wanted to take a moment to remember him.”