The road to recovery! Ashley Judd is up walking again after shattering her leg in the rainforest — an injury that sent her to the ICU in South Africa.
“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! I hiked in the #SwissNationalPark,” the actress, 53, shared via Instagram on Sunday, August 1, sharing multiple photos and videos of herself walking. “Stepping in, I felt in my ease, my natural garment of self, at home in my spirit. My leg and foot, worked beautifully. I walked up hill on uneven surfaces for an hour confidently and came down carefully and easily. I rested in a meadow on God’s fecund earth for hours. The next day, I walked again on a high Alp in #Ticino, working hard and feeling how much I stamina I have to rebuild. This is the road ahead. But I am up to the daily tasks, as I am even carrying firewood into our Alpine hut!”
After thanking many doctors in her post, she shared that she became emotional when seeing the photos and one video, which shows her moving her foot around.
“The video of my foot moving is unheard of. We expected my foot – if ever – to *begin* to move in one year,” the Kiss the Girls star wrote. “After crying while trying to spell the ABCs with a paralyzed foot….well, you see! My leg will never be the same. She is a new leg. And I love her. We are buddies. We have a come a long way and we have a fabulous life ahead.”
In February, the All That is Bitter and Sweet author revealed that she had taken a horrible fall in the Congo region of Africa, where she was hiking with a team of researchers to examine bonobo apes. She went on to detail the 55-hour rescue.
“Without my Congolese brothers and sisters, my internal bleeding would have likely killed me and I would have lost my leg,” she captioned Instagram photos of herself being carried through the rainforest in a makeshift hammock on February 16. “I wake up weeping in gratitude, deeply moved by each person who contributed something life giving and spirit saving during my grueling 55 hour odyssey.”
Upon arriving at the ICU, the Emmy nominee underwent an eight-hour surgery. “I want to give my deepest and most vulnerable thanks to Sunninghill Hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa, for making split second decisions upon my arrival,” she wrote via Instagram on February 22. “I arrived to them from DRC in terrible shape and my leg had no pulse.”
On Monday, she again thanked the team of first responders who helped her through the recovery.
“I have been loved and understood and helped in my healing,” Judd wrote. “Many of you have been praying for me, and sending me notes. Thank you. I have felt you. I especially have been held by family and my partner. Peace be with you.”
See the latest photos of her recovery below: