Ashley Judd hospitalised following “catastrophic” accident in the Congo
Ashley Judd has been hospitalised following a “catastrophic” accident in the Congo.
The actor recounted her recent fall during an Instagram Live interview with The New York Times‘ Nicholas Kristof in which she spoke from a South African hospital’s trauma unit.
Judd, who was in the Congo to track the endangered Bonobos, explained that she sustained “massive catastrophic injuries” after tripping over a fallen tree. “What was next was an incredibly harrowing 55 hours,” she said.
Recalling her evacuation from the rainforest, Judd said she spent five hours lying on the ground with her “badly misshapen leg”. “[I was] biting my stick, howling like a wild animal,” she remembered.
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The actor was then carried back to her camp by her “Congolese brothers” before eventually making it out of the remote location by motorbike: “I had to physically hold the top part of my shattered tibia together, and we did that for six hours.”
Judd went on to say that she was on the “edge of my very edge” throughout the ordeal, but admitted her “privilege” in being able to make it to a fully equipped hospital for treatment.
“The difference between a Congolese person and me is disaster insurance that allowed me 55 hours after my accident to get to an operating table in South Africa,” she said, addressing the Conga villages’ lack of resources and “a simple pill to kill the pain”.
Back in 2018, Ashley Judd sued Harvey Weinstein for “damaging her career” due to her rejecting his sexual advances. The disgraced film mogul was convicted of first-degree and third-degree rape last March, and is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence.