Ashley Judd is walking again nearly six months after shattering her leg in four places while walking through the rainforest.
The actress has been chronicling her rehabilitation on social media since the potentially fatal accident and shared the latest update Sunday on Instagram.
"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. Stepping in, I felt in my ease, my natural garment of self, at home in my spirit," she wrote. "My leg and foot, worked beautifully. I walked up hill on uneven surfaces for an hour confidently and came down carefully and easily."
Judd added that she took a second hike the following day but realized how much strength and stamina she needed 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!" she continued, noting that after undergoing an eight-hour surgery and physiotherapy, she was finally on her two feet again.
"My leg will never be the same," Judd wrote. "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's horrific fall took place in February while researching endangered bonobo apes in the rainforest. She tripped over a fallen tree and suffered "massive catastrophic injuries," according to one of her Instagram Live sessions cited by Fox News. Judd had to be hospitalized, but it took over two days for her to reach safety.
She recalled laying on the ground while one of her rescuers, Dieumerci, refused to leave her side and remained seated on the ground for several hours. Her second rescuer, "Papa Jean" spent five hours trying to find Judd but did not give up until she was located. He then manipulated her leg into a position so she could be transported back to civilization.
Six men carried her in a hammock for three hours over technical terrain. She was then transported by motorbike to safety.
"I do not understand why what has happened has happened," Judd previously wrote on Instagram. "I do understand I have been loved and helped enormously. I understand nights are a savage agony."
She went on to thank the doctors and staff at Skyline Hospital who assisted her in the days following her rescue. She also thanked her "Congolese brothers and sisters," who saved her life.
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Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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