‘I screamed and writhed’: Ashley Judd shares dramatic photos of rescue from Congolese jungle after ‘shattering’ leg

Actor said locals saved her life after she sustained catastrophic injury in forest

Ashley Judd is rescued in Congolese jungle (Ashley Judd Instagram/Rex)

Twin Peaks star Ashley Judd has shared photos and the grim details of her rescue from the Congelese jungle, where she fell and broke her leg last week.

Judd was walking in the rainforest when she tripped over a fallen tree, shattering her leg. The actor and humanitarian is a frequent visitor to Congo, and on her latest visit there she was doing work to track bonobos, an endangered species.

In an Instagram post on Tuesday (16 February), Judd shared a gallery of photos showing her rescue by locals. In the caption, she wrote: “Without my Congolese brothers and sisters, my internal bleeding would have likely killed me, and I would have lost my leg. I wake up weeping in gratitude, deeply moved by each person who contributed something life-giving and spirit-salving during my gruelling 55-hour odyssey.”

She went on to reveal that as she lay in agony on the forest floor, a man named Dieumerci “stretched out his leg and put it under my grossly misshapen left leg to try to keep it still”. She added that her leg was “broken in four places and had nerve damage”.

Judd added that after searching for her for five hours, another local man named Papa Jean gave her a stick to bite on, then went about readjusting the shattered parts of her leg.

A group of men then improvised a hammock and spent three hours carrying Judd through the forest to the nearest transportation. She was then driven for six hours on a motorbike.

Judd is now resting in a “trauma unit in beautiful South Africa”.

Read more -Ashley Judd in hospital following ‘catastrophic’ accident in the Congo

The actor, who is the daughter of country singer Naomi Judd, has appeared in films including Heat, Double Jeopardy and Bug.

In 2018, she sued convicted rapist and former film mogul Harvey Weinstein for “damaging her career” after she rejected his sexual advances, and scuppering an opportunity to star in the Lord of the Rings trilogy by describing her as difficult to work with.

In 2020, an appeals court allowed Judd to pursue her sexual harassment claims against Weinstein.