AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER
TOP Hollywood actress Ashley Judd, who broke her leg badly in an accident in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has diverted attention from herself to the millions in that country, who have to live with little or no health facilities.
Judd fell and fractured her leg while on a research mission in the DRC and had to endure over 55 hours of severe pain while she was moved from the rainforest to Kinshasa and finally to South Africa, where she underwent surgery.
The actress did not only compliment the many Congolese who came to her rescue and nursed her but said moved the focus away from her to them.
Judd was full of praise for the trackers and others who came to her assistance. She said her accident highlighted the need for better medical facilities in the DRC. “The difference between a Congolese person and me is the disaster insurance that allowed me, 55 hours after my accident, to get to an operating table in South Africa,” she said.
Judd was full of gratitude.
“I am in a lot of love. I am in a lot of compassion, and I am in a lot of gratitude. I thank everyone for their thoughts and their prayers and their support,” Judd, 52, said from an intensive care unit of a hospital traum unit in SA.
She spoke to Nicholas Kristof, from the New York Times, in an Instagram Live interview where she described, in great detail, the sheer trauma of a harrowing 55 hours during which she was carried on a hammock through the forest and down the hills by her “Congolese brothers”.
The Divergent and Double Jeopardy said she tripped over a fallen tree, breaking her leg. And then an incredibly harrowing ordeal started. For five hours, she lay in the forest waiting for evacuation. During the wait, someone managed to reset her leg. She bit on a stick, howled like a wild animal and could feel herself going into shock and passing out due to severe pain.
She was then evacuated in a hammock by barefooted “Congolese brothers”, out of the rainforest, up and over hills, through the river, back to their camp.
The next phase of her journey was a six hour motorcycle ride, with one person driving and one behind her holding here.
She then spent the night in a hut in the city of Jolu next, before being flown to Kinshasa. A day later she was flown to South Africa where she underwent surgery to save her leg.
