Ashley Judd’s photos of her harrowing rescue in Congo mark The Heroes

Actor Ashley Judd posted photos of her “grueling 55-hour odyssey” from the Congolese rainforest to South Africa on Tuesday to save the leg she crushed in a fall – and lavishly thanked the rescuers who had done it. (See images below.)

“Without my Congolese siblings, my internal bleeding would probably have killed me, and I would have lost my leg,” the “Double Jeopardy” star wrote on Instagram. “I wake up crying with gratitude, deeply moved by every person who has contributed something life-saving and mind-saving during my grueling 55-hour odyssey.”

Judd’s photo gallery featured the heroes of a bonobo research expedition that turned into a dire emergency when she tripped over a tree in the dark. They comforted her as she lay helplessly on the forest floor for hours. They reset her shattered shin twice to make the arduous journey, carrying her on foot across brutal terrain in a hammock and then on the motorcycle, propping her back while keeping her mutilated limb steady.

Judd, whose films include Divergent, Tooth Fairy and Someone Like You, The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof told the video at the top that she was eventually transported to the capital of Kinshasa, where she took a plane for South Africa. She underwent surgery there in a hospital.

A few years ago, Judd emerged as a prominent figure in the MeToo movement, accusing film mogul Harvey Weinstein of sabotaging her career after rejecting his unwanted advances.