This article was originally posted on 08/03/21 titled: Ashley Judd Just Gave An Update On Her Health Status Since Her Horrific Accident–Get Well Soon!
Back in February, Ashley Judd shattered her leg in several places while backpacking in the Congo, raising concern if she would be able to walk the same again. However, nearly six months after the accident Judd gave an update, revealing that she has begun walking normally again, while recognizing in “quiet awe” that she was able to do so.
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On Sunday, Judd shared an update to Instagram, posting a video of herself walking up a hill with a stunning mountain view in the background. Alongside the carousel of images, the 53-year-old actress wrote an emotional caption, detailing her health journey over the last several months. Judd began, “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. Stepping in, I felt in my ease, my natural garment of self, at home in my spirit.”
Judd continued, describing how her leg and foot “worked beautifully,” noting how she walked for hours and was able to do so with ease. “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 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!”
Thanking the surgeons
The actress went on to thank the doctors and people in her network who allowed her to get to the place in recovery that she is now, marveling in awe at how much they have done for her since her injury earlier this year. "The video of my foot moving is unheard of. We expected my foot - if ever - to *begin* to move in one year. In four months to the day, she blew us all away. Now, after crying while trying to spell the ABCs with a paralyzed foot….well, you see," Judd wrote of the orthopedic surgeon who made it all possible. "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."
For comparison, Judd also posted a video from several months before where she hobbled with crutches through the woods, showing off the dramatic journey of her healing and how much has changed in that time. "Just look at the last video for comparison, that was where I was just two months ago (always trying to be in nature) when I could barely walk! 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," she concluded.
This post was updated on 11/01/22 with the information below:
Freak accident
Ashley Judd's leg-related health problems are far from over, as the Double Jeopardy star just confessed that she was involved in a "freak accident" earlier this summer that led to her fracturing her leg, noting that it happened just a few months after her mother, Naomi Judd, died unexpectedly by suicide.
Ashley explained that the femoral condyle fracture – which came less than a year after her accident in the Congo – could have been a result of the grief she was dealing with following her mother's death on April 30th, which came following a long struggle with her mental health.
Grief-related clumsiness
"It was what it was," Ashley said on October 27th during a Zoom appearance at an Open Mind lecture with UCLA professor Dr. Jonathan Flint. "Clumsiness is associated with grief, and there were other people in our family, after mom died, who fell down stairs and had accidents, and that's just what mine happened to look like."
Judd did reveal that this accident was nowhere near as severe as last year's one, and "healed in two months, lickety-split." She also added that she was, in a way, grateful for the down time she had while being off her feet and recovering, as it gave her time to process her mother's death in a way that she may not have been able to if she was living her life, as normal. "It really allowed me to grieve," she shared. "It really allowed me to stop what I was working on at that moment and to grieve."
