- Ashley Judd is recovering in a South African hospital after hurting her leg in Congo.
- The actress said she tripped over a fallen tree during an Instagram Live on Friday.
- Judd described the 55 hours that followed as an “incredibly distressing” experience.
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Ashley Judd is recovering after hurting her leg in a “massive and catastrophic” accident in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The 52-year-old actress took part in an Instagram Live with Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times on Friday in a South African ICU that took her from Congo, where she broke her leg in four places and suffered nerve damage after fall in the rain forest.
“I am in love, I am very compassionate and I am very grateful,” she said.
Judd traveled to Congo, a country she said she visits twice a year, to research “highly endangered” bonobo monkeys.
On the morning of the accident, she and some trackers entered the forest at around 4:30 am. She said her flashlight “was not working properly”, explaining that she tripped over a fallen tree.
“As I was breaking my leg, I knew I was being broken,” she said, adding, “What came next was 55 incredibly distressing hours.
Judd said she lay on the rainforest floor with a “malformed leg” for five hours “biting my cock”, “howling like a wild animal” and “going into shock” in pain.
After a colleague from the camp arrived to restore her bones, her “Congolese brothers” carried her out of the rainforest on a hammock for an hour and a half, she said.
Judd said that she embarked on a six-hour motorcycle ride, during which she had to “physically hold on to the top of my broken tibia”.
Ashley Judd.
JP Yim / Getty Images
Reflecting on his ability to pay people to transport her to various locations, Judd recognized his privilege.
“Another Congolese, that would have been the end of their options,” she said, explaining that they probably would have stayed in one of the ancestral villages for treatment. “That would have been the end of your leg and probably your life.”
She spent the night in a cabin before leaving for the capital Kinshasa by plane. She stayed there for 24 hours before traveling to South Africa to seek medical attention.
Judd said that his right foot is “crippled” and that his nerve will take time to heal. However, she said she is confident she will be back on “intensive physical therapy”.
After the accident, Judd told his followers on Instagram that she “almost lost her leg”.
“I am a wild woman, as you know. Accidents happen,” she wrote.
Judd used his experience to draw attention to “what it means to be Congolese in extreme poverty, without access to health care, any pain medication, any type of service or options.”