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Ashley Judd walks again long after shattering leg in Africa

FILE - In this April 30, 2018, file photo, actress Ashley Judd speaks during a discussion on feminism at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, Calif. Judd has recounted a painful ordeal that she believes almost cost her leg after tripping in a Congolese rainforest and having to be evacuated by motorbike. In one of two Instagram Live videos hosted Friday, Feb. 12, 2021, by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, the actor said she was stuck on the ground for five hours with a badly misshapen leg, biting a stick because of pain, and howling like a wild animal. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File) (Jae C. Hong, Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Ashley Judd is walking again, nearly six months after shattering her leg deep in a Congolese rainforest.

Judd posted a video of herself on Instagram on Sunday walking by herself up a hill in a national park in the Swiss alps.

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“My leg and foot, worked beautifully. I walked up hill on uneven surfaces for an hour confidently and came down carefully and easily,” Judd said in the post.

Judd tripped over a log and broke her tibia in multiple places while joining researchers in a night-time search for bonobos. She said she spent hours on the forest floor, biting a stick after screaming in pain. Several men carried her back to camp in a hammock tied to a pole, and then she was evacuated by motorbike over dirt roads, with a driver steering and another man “holding the top part of my shattered tibia together.”

The actress thanked her African colleagues, doctors, therapists, family and fans for their support in her recovery.

“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,” Judd wrote.


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