Ashley Judd has revealed she’s currently in the ICU at a South African hospital, after suffering “catastrophic injuries” in the Congo.
During an Instagram Live with The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof on Friday, the actress recalled how she severely injured her leg during an excursion in the rainforest.
Speaking from her hospital bed, the 52-year-old said she was transported to an “ICU trauma unit in beautiful South Africa” as hospitals in the Congo weren’t equipped to deal with her “catastrophic injuries”.
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Detailing her “incredibly harrowing” experience, Ashley explained that she shattered her leg after tripping over a fallen tree in the rainforest.
The actress said she initially spent five hours “lying on the forest floor” with one of her colleagues until she was able to be evacuated.
After someone arrived to reset her bones, leaving her screaming in pain, Ashley spent “an hour and a half in a hammock, being carried out of the rainforest by my Congolese brothers, who were doing it barefoot, up and over hills, through the river.”
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Once they made it back to their camp, Ashley was transported to the city of Jolu on a motorcycle, which took another six hours.
The 52-year-old then spent the night “in a hut”, before she was flown to the capital of Kinshasa, where she stayed for 24 hours.
Eventually, Ashley was transported to a hospital in South Africa, to be treated in an intensive care unit.
