18:51 PST 2/12/2021
in
Trilby Beresford
From a bed in the ICU, the actress and humanitarian spoke about her ordeal with New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof in an Instagram Live video on Friday.
Ashley Judd revealed on social media on Friday that she was involved in a “catastrophic accident” in the Congo rainforest, where she almost lost her leg.
Speaking of a bed in the ICU, the actress and humanitarian said in an Instagram Live video with New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof that she broke her leg in four places and has nerve damage.
“I was doing what I always do, waking up at 4:30 am with two of our trackers who are just these bright, shiny men, walking in the dark, and my headlamp had new batteries, but it was a little passed out, it wasn’t working very well – I went down the half dome in Yosemite under the full moon, I can walk with partial light, but accidents happen – and there was a fallen tree on the way, which I did not “See, I had a very strong step and I fell on this tree . As I was breaking my leg, I knew it was breaking, so I shouted at Maude, who was one of the researchers who worked with me, “said Judd, adding that she knew what an evacuation in the rain forest would entail.
Judd was in Congo as part of a research project for endangered bonobos. She describes the monkey-like animals on her Instagram account as “Equal, matriarchal, peaceful”, adding that they offer hope to humans.
“What happened next was an incredibly distressing 55 hours,” Judd continued in the conversation about her ordeal, explaining that for the first five hours, she was simply lying on the forest floor with her “malformed leg”, biting a stick due to the pain and “howling like a wild animal”. She said her teeth were chattering and she was sweating.
As Kristof commented, there was no ambulance service. Judd was transported to a trauma unit in South Africa on a motorcycle, where she had to physically hold the upper part of her broken tibia. “We did this for six hours,” she recalled. “I was at the limit of my limit.”
Judd, who referred to her privilege during the interview, noted that the difference between her and a Congolese person is disaster insurance that allowed her to get to an operating table in South Africa before it was too late.
On his own Instagram page, Judd wrote that he spoke to Kristof to clarify “what it means to be Congolese in extreme poverty, without access to health care, any pain medication, any type of service or options.”
The Hollywood Reporter contacted Judd’s representatives for further comments.
The interview, in which Judd ended up being disconnected, probably due to cell service, is below.