Ashley Judd recovers in ICU after nearly losing her leg in 'catastrophic' accident in Congo rainforest

• Ashley Judd is recovering in a South African hospital after injuring her leg in Congo.
• The actress said she tripped over a fallen tree during an Instagram Live on Friday.
• Judd described the 55 hours that followed as an 'incredibly harrowing' experience.

Ashley Judd is recovering after injuring her leg in a "massive, catastrophic" accident in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The actress, 52, joined an Instagram Live with The New York Times' Nicholas Kristof on Friday from a South African ICU that took her in from Congo, where she shattered her leg in four places and suffered nerve damage after falling in the rainforest.

"I'm in a lot of love, I'm in a lot of compassion, and I'm in a lot of gratitude," she said.

Judd traveled to Congo, a country she said she visits twice a year, to research "highly endangered" bonobo apes.

On the morning of the accident, she and some trackers headed into the rainforest around 4:30 a.m. She said that her headlamp "wasn't working properly," explaining that she tripped over a fallen tree.

"As I was breaking my leg, I knew it was being broken," she said, adding, "What was next was an incredibly harrowing 55 hours."

Judd said she laid on the rainforest floor with a "badly misshapen leg" for five hours "biting my stick," "howling like a wild animal," and "going into shock" from the pain.

After a colleague from camp arrived to reset her bones, her "Congolese brothers" carried her out of the rainforest in a hammock for an hour and a half, she said.

Judd said she then embarked on a six-hour motorbike ride, during which she had to "physically hold the top part of my shattered tibia together."

Reflecting on her ability to pay people to transport her to various locations, Judd acknowledged her privilege.

"Another Congolese person, this would've been the end of their options," she said, explaining that they likely would have remained in one of the ancestral villages for treatment. "That would've been the end of their leg and probably their life."

She spent the night in a hut before she departing to the capital Kinshasa by bush plane. She stayed there for 24 hours before eventually traveling to South Africa to seek medical care.

Judd said that her right foot is currently "lame," and her nerve will take time to heal. However, she said she's confident she'll walk again with "intensive physical therapy."

After the accident, Judd told her Instagram followers that she "nearly lost her leg."

"I am a woman of the wilderness, as you know. Accidents do happen," she wrote.

Judd used her experience to draw attention to "what it means to be Congolese in extreme poverty with no access to health care, any medication for pain, any type of service, or choices."