6:51 PM PST 2/12/2021
by
Trilby Beresford
From an ICU bed, the actress and humanitarian spoke in an Instagram Live video on Friday about her ordeal with New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof.
Ashley Judd revealed on social media on Friday that she was involved in a “catastrophic accident” in the Congo rainforest, where she nearly lost her leg.
Speaking from an ICU bed, the actress and humanitarian said in an Instagram Live video with New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof that she has crushed her leg in four places and has nerve damage.
“ I was doing what I always do, in the morning at 3:30 with two of our trackers who are just these brilliant, brilliant, world class guys, walking in the dark, and my headlight had new batteries, but it was kind of weak, it didn’t work quite right – i got half dome in Yosemite under a full moon, i can walk in partial light but accidents happen – and there was a fallen tree in the path that i didn’t do i saw it and I had a very strong stride and I just fell over this tree. As I broke my leg I knew it was getting broken, I called out to Maude, who was one of the investigators who worked with me, ”Judd said, adding that she knew what an evacuation in the rainforest would involve.
Judd was in Congo as part of a research project on endangered bonobos. She describes the ape-like animals on her Instagram account as “egalitarian, matriarchal, peaceful,” adding that they offer hope for humans.
“What was next was an incredibly poignant 55 hours,” Judd continued in the conversation about her ordeal, explaining that for the first five hours she just lay on the forest floor with her “severely deformed leg,” biting a stick for the pain and “howl like a wild animal.” She said her teeth were chattering and she was sweating cold.
As Kristof pointed out, there was no ambulance service. Judd was transported on a motorcycle to a South African trauma unit, where she had to physically hold the top part of her shattered shin together. “We did that for six hours,” she recalls. “I was on the edge of my very edge.”
Judd, referring to her privilege during the interview, noted that the difference between herself and a Congolese is disaster insurance that allowed her to reach an operating table in South Africa before it was too late.
On her own Instagram page, Judd wrote that she spoke with Kristof to shed light on “what it means to be Congolese in extreme poverty, without access to healthcare, painkillers, any kind of service or choice”.
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to representatives for Judd for further comment.
The interview, in which Judd was eventually cut off, presumably due to cellular service, is below.