Ashley Judd opens up about near-fatal accident in Congo and how she was saved

Mike Coppola/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — (NOTE CONTENT) Actress Ashley Judd claims she nearly died after breaking her leg in four places last week.

The Double Jeopardy star was visiting the Democratic Republic of Congo when she had an accident Talking on Instagram Tuesday, the 52-year-old Judd shared photos of her “grueling” rescue and independently honored those who spent countless hours keeping her safe.

“Friends. Without my Congolese brothers and sisters, my internal bleeding would have likely killed me, and I would have lost my leg,” the Emmy nominee stated. “I wake up weeping in gratitude, deeply moved by each person who contributed something life giving and spirit salving during my grueling 55 hour odyssey.”

Judd named those who located her, set her leg and transported her to safety.

“Dieumerci stretched out his leg and put it under my grossly misshapen left leg to try to keep it still. It was broken in four places and had nerve damage,” she described before turning to a man named Papa Jean, who “calmly assessed my broken leg” and began resetting it.

“How he did that so methodically while I was like an animal is beyond me. He saved me,” she confessed before shouting out the six men who spent three hours gently carrying her out of the forest.

“Didier and Maradona: Didier drove the motorbike [to a doctor,]” continued Judd, saying Maradona sat in the back with her and kept her from passing out.  “Together we did this for 6 hours,” she added.

Judd was injured on February 12 when she was hiking in the Congo to research the bonobos chimpanzee, an endangered species.

She said in an earlier interview that she was taken to South Africa and is resting in an ICU to treat her “massive catastrophic injuries.”