Ashley Judd Shares Photos of Scarred, Injured Leg After ‘Incredibly Harrowing’ Accident in Congo

Ashley Judd is making recovery progress after a devastating leg injury while hiking through the remote Congolese rain forest back in February. Now more than two months after the actress, 53, broke her leg in four places and suffered severe nerve damage, Judd is celebrating how far she has come with her physical therapy while trying to regain strength and flexibility.

“In the video, 109 degrees was an outrageous dream, & trying to reach it was agony,” Judd said alongside a gallery of photos and videos that show her leg’s extensive scarring from her numerous surgeries. “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.”

“Yesterday, I effortlessly reached the benchmark of 130 degrees. I can nearly reach my knee as you see in one picture. My feet can rest almost parallel. The knee is coming along, the four fractures healing,” she continued, adding that her peroneal nerve injury will take “at least a year” as she works concentrating to move her foot. “Come June, I will walk with a brace and a cane,” Judd added. The Double Jeopardy actress isn’t done adventuring just yet, showing off a book about trekking in the Patagonian Andes recently given to her by her partner. “But look out, Patagonia, because when that nerve heals, you’ll be seeing me,” Judd wrote.

Judd had no idea what kind of journey was in front of her when she tripped over a fallen tree during a visit to the Congo to see the endangered bonobos monkeys. Being rescued from the remote rain forest by her fellow adventurers, Judd was first carried miles out of the wilderness before she could be driven via motorbike to the closest hospital in a “grueling 55-hour” rescue. She was then airlifted to South Africa for her first leg surgery and underwent several operations at Sunninghill Hospital in Johannesburg before she was flown back to the U.S. in a 22-hour endeavor requiring four different flights.

Once she was hospitalized in the U.S., Judd had plenty of damage to repair. “I had to continue to wait for the tissue damage and swelling to reduce. Eventually I was qualified to have the 8-hour surgery to repair the bones, decompress the hemorrhaging nerve and pick the shards of bones out of the nerve. I am now recovering from surgery,” Judd said on Instagram on Feb. 22.