Ashley Judd shared photos after she broke her leg during a trip to Africa and detailed her “grueling 55 hour odyssey” to the hospital.
“Friends. Without my Congolese brothers and sisters, my internal bleeding would have likely killed me, and I would have lost my leg,” the 52-year-old actress captioned a post on her Instagram page Tuesday. Judd shared several pictures of her being carried in a makeshift gurney and resting on a floor, with her leg wrapped in bamboo sticks (RELATED: George Clooney Recalls Terrifying Motorcycle Accident)
“I wake up weeping in gratitude, deeply moved by each person who contributed something life giving and spirit salving during my grueling 55 hour odyssey,” she wrote.
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The “Double Jeopardy” star thanked all those who helped her through as she shared each of their stories. (RELATED: Actor Dax Shepard Breaks Bones During Motorcycle Accident)
“Dieumerci stretched out his leg and put it under my grossly misshapen left leg to try to keep it still,” Judd wrote. “It was broken in four places and had nerve damage. Dieumerci (‘Thanks be to God’) remained seated, without fidgeting or flinching, for 5 hours on the rain forest floor. He was with me in my primal pain. He was my witness.”
Judd also praised the six men who “carefully moved ” her into a hammock and carried her for “3 hours over rough terrain” out of the forest.
“Maradona rode on the very back of the motorbike, i faced him. He held my broken leg under the heel and I held the shattered top part together with my two hands,” the Hollywood star continued. “Together we did this for 6 hours on an irregular, rutted and pocked dirt road that has gullies for rain run off during the rainy season.”
Judd experienced a different kind of crucible when she sued movie mogul Harvey Weinstein in 2018, joining other stars who spoke out against the infamous producer and power broker at the height of the #MeToo Movement.