Ashley Judd Almost ‘Bled to Death’ on a Hike Gone Wrong in the Congo

During a recent appearance on the podcast Sex, Body, & Soul, Ashley Judd has revealed how close she came to dying on a remote forest hike in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the episode, released Tuesday, Judd opened up to host (and long-time friend) Kate Roberts about this harrowing experience in the jungle, as well as the #MeToo movement and Harvey Weinstein, and her path to sexual wellness after sexual abuse. 

In February 2021, the actor and humanitarian broke her right leg in four places after tripping over a fallen tree in the Congo. During her accident, she damaged her peroneal nerve, which accounts for the sensation in the front and side of the leg, as well as the top of the foot. The nerve also controls the leg muscles that help to lift the ankle and toes. She was on a research trip to track down the Bonobo, an endangered great ape. After the injury, Judd lay on the forest floor for five hours and barely scraped through. The pain was the worst she has ever experienced. “I bit a stick, I screamed, I howled, I convulsed. I never did pass out—I wished that I could,” she said on the podcast.

Hours on, a colleague came to reset her bones and she had to be carried in a hammock back to camp. The 90-minute journey even involved a river crossing. For six hours, she was transported on a motorcycle to a location from which she could be flown to the South African hospital. So, this gives you an idea of just how remote the hiking location was. Once Judd was rescued, it was not smooth sailing from there. She was treated for nine days before being medevaced to Tennessee. “When I got to South Africa, my leg didn’t have a pulse and I was hemorrhaging, and if I had been medevaced to Europe I would’ve bled to death,” she said in the podcast episode.

Along with crediting the local Congolese people for saving her life, she credits keeping a strong, calm mind for helping her get through the considerable pain, and not knowing whether she would pull through. “It showed me that all the work I’ve done in the development of my meditation process and how hard I’ve tried to heal, that that really was with me throughout those 55 hours,” she said in the podcast. “I was at my edge, and I would get to the edge of my edge and I would try to soften, and I would try to find more spaces inside of me,” she continued.

Over the past year, Judd has shared updates of her road to recovery. During her months of physical rehabilitation, she shared that one of the hardest parts was trying to bend her knee during physical rehabilitation exercises. “With the kind of injury I (& many others) have, we speak of degrees. In the video, 109 degrees was an outrageous dream, & trying to reach it was agony,” she said in an Instagram post. “I did 60 of those heel slides a day. I sobbed through them. I made it because of the loving exhortation and validation of my many friends.” 

In August 2021, Judd posted a video of her walking in the Swiss Alps with a leg brace on. “Dear Friends, It is with reverence and quiet awe I offer this update. Today, five months and three weeks after the accident in the Congolese rainforest, I walked again, and in what fashion!” she said in the caption. And some seven months on, she’s finally healed, and ready to head back to the Congo. “My heart is open and eager. I do not yet know what I will feel, I know only that I will feel, and I am ready to greet the experience with curiosity, wonder, and an abundance of gratitude,” she said.

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