Ashley Judd nearly 'bled to death' after leg injury in Congo

Ashley Judd has now admitted she isn't sure how she got through the 55-hour rescue mission. Photo / Getty Images

Ashley Judd nearly "bled to death" after injuring her leg in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The 53-year-old star shattered her leg in four places in February last year after she tripped over a tree during a jungle hike, and the actor has now admitted she isn't sure how she got through the 55-hour rescue mission, but believes she would've died if she had been transported to Europe.

She said: "I was in hospital in South Africa about nine days. And then I was medevaced to Tennessee. But when I got to South Africa my leg didn't have a pulse and I was haemorrhaging, and if I had been medevaced to Europe I would've bled to death.

"It showed me that all the work I've done in the development of my meditation process and how hard I've tried to heal, that that really was with me throughout those 55 hours.

"And this doesn't make me good, right and perfect, and I'm not trying to toot my own horn, but there was a certain grace that stayed with me.

"I knew that I couldn't have expectations, for example, of when I might get help or if there will be a painkiller, or anything. And I just had no expectations, and I knew that I could only do it one breath at a time," she said. "And I was able to say please and thank you and may I have a drink of water, and I didn't make it anybody else's fault, and I didn't take it out on the people around me."

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The A Time to Kill star admitted while she was being rescued she wished she could've "passed out" because she was in so much pain.

She told the Sex, Body and Soul podcast: "I don't know how the mind and the body and the soul come together to manage to endure the unendurable.

"I bit a stick, I screamed, I howled, I convulsed. I never did pass out — I wished that I could."

In August, the star admitted she was walking again following her horrific fall.

She wrote on Instagram: "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. 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! (sic)"