Ashley Judd has recounted a painful ordeal she believes almost cost her leg after tripping in a Congolese rainforest and having to be evacuated by motorbike.
The one food you should NEVER put on your dinner plate [sponsored]
In one of two Instagram Live videos hosted Friday by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, the actor said she was stuck on the ground for five hours with a “badly misshapen leg,” biting a stick because of pain, and “howling like a wild animal.”
Judd was injured when she and researchers were up early in a rainforest looking for bonobos when she tripped over a log and the fall shattered her tibia. She was carried out the rainforest in a hammock and back to camp.
Then she was evacuated by motorbike, with a driver steering and another man “holding the top part of my shattered tibia together.” That trip lasted six hours.
She described it as a “catastrophic accident” and added that she “nearly lost my leg.” She conducted the interview from a hospital bed in South Africa and revealed that if she wasn’t a famous actor, she thinks she might have lost her leg and her life during the 55-hour ordeal.
Sponsored: Over 55? Here’s how to IMPROVE lung health
The Associated Press contributed to this article