It’s a Friday evening in September in the British capital. It’s raining in familiar London style.
It’s only been a month since Sarah DeLagarde and her husband climbed Kilimanjaro. Sarah has been working late into the night on a project with her colleagues. After 20:00 she leaves the office and goes home to her family.
Mother of young children tries to get an Uber, but all the drivers are busy. She lives not far from work and hops on a carriage on the London Underground, also known as “The Tube”.
Fatigue sets in and Sarah wakes up at the wrong station. She exits the platform at the end of the line, but she realizes that the platform will retrace the same path again. When she is about to take the field again, the unthinkable happens.
On the platform is water from London rain. Sarah slips and falls against the door, which slams shut. Suddenly she is between the track and the platform.
No one saw this happen. The train she was supposed to be on passed over her arm and leg and she left the station. Sarah remained on the tracks yelling for help. Nobody heard it.
This was Sarah de Lagarde night, September 30, 2022.
– I think I lay on the rink for about fifteen minutes, Sarah tells Nettavisen.
– My name is Sarah and I don’t want to die
The cell phone, with its neon orange cover and neon orange collar, is on the platform, two meters from Sarah.
– I noticed it, because it glowed in the dark. I figured if I can get to my phone I can call someone. I couldn’t move the right side of my body. I used the left side of my body to crawl closer to the phone and grab the mobile collar so I could pull the phone towards me, Sarah says.
Sarah tries to open the phone with facial recognition. It does not work.
– I had broken my nose and teeth. I had a cut on my cheek. The phone didn’t recognize me. I must have been full of blood.
Then try to open the phone by entering the code. The phone is wet and her hands are dirty and she Sarah can’t open the phone with her left hand.
– I remember putting the phone down and thinking “go back to plan A”, which was to keep asking for help.
– I shouted “can someone help me? My name is Sarah and I don’t want to die”, he adds.
He shouted it over and over again.
Watching the next train approaching
– Did you feel the pain of being hit right now?
– I did not hear anything. I had so much adrenaline. I didn’t panic either.
Then comes the next train.
– It was quite scary seeing the light and hearing the noise and seeing the light approaching. I tried to get as far away from the track as possible.
Sarah is not hit by the other train and continues to call for help.
– The only thought I had was that I couldn’t die on a dirty track. I had a big drive inside of me that told me I should survive this and see my kids again. I wasn’t about to die.
Eventually someone hears Sarah and calls 911. At one point, while she was waiting for the ambulance to arrive, she thought Sarah was going to die.
– A miracle I survived
– It took some time for the ambulance to arrive and it took some time for the ambulance operators to locate me. For a second I felt very cold in my chest and then I thought “this is a sign that I’m going to die”.
– I told the doctor “I think I’m dying, so you need to hurry.” The doctor reassured me and said “hold on for a few more minutes. You can’t see it, but there are many people on the platform who are all here to help and save you. Resist”.
Sarah is taken to the London Royal Hospital and taken to surgery.
– The doctors said it’s a miracle that I survived. It was a miracle that the train only took his right arm and leg. It was a miracle because it could have been much more dangerous as the second train arriving could have completely crushed me. A
Other possible outcomes could have had catastrophic consequences, doctors say.
– When I picked up the phone I could have hit the electrical circuits on the track. I might as well have died of blood loss or a heart attack.
Surreal phone call
At the hospital, Sarah wants to call her husband to tell him what had happened.
– It didn’t work, because I didn’t remember his phone number. The phone battery was dead.
Sarah’s husband is only informed at 3:00 in the morning that his wife has been in a train accident.
He got worried and tried to call repeatedly. But it’s Friday night and he thinks his wife is out.
– It’s the most surreal phone conversation I’ve had in my life, says Sarah.
In retrospect, he thought a lot about the incident and how brutal life can be sometimes.
– It’s ironic that in August, I climbed Africa’s highest mountain, Kilimanjaro, with my husband – and a month later, I’m involved in a life-changing accident where I’m lying in a filthy ditch. One moment you’re on top of the world and the next you’ve hit rock bottom.
– Please, pay attention to the space”.
Sarah thinks it’s important to share her story because she believes this is an accident that could happen to anyone.
– This is the space in between. We always hear it “Mind the gap, mind the gap”. I’ve lived here for several years and after a while you don’t realize that an accident can happen. You feel quite confident and you don’t realize that this can happen in a second.
This is also one of the thoughts he wants others to take with them when they read his story.
– Please, “mind the gap”.
Also, he wants to emphasize that it’s important to have a positive attitude.
– In two months I went from being in danger of life to being able to walk straight out of a rehab center. It’s quite extraordinary. People usually take longer. I think it’s about having a positive mindset.
Much has to be relearned. Sarah is right-handed, but now she has to write with her left hand. Sarah decided early enough that she wasn’t going to drown in her sorrows, she tells Nettavisen.
What happened happened.
– Is sad. I could have taken a cab and nothing would have happened. If I hadn’t fallen asleep on the subway, nothing would have happened. I could have stopped running and taken a different path instead. But I can’t think about it. The best thing is to accept it and make the best of it. I’m alive.
You want an innovative bionic arm
When Nettavisen spoke to Sarah, it had been two months since the accident. The first six weeks after the accident you spent in a rehabilitation center.
– My children were very scared at first because they didn’t think mom would ever come home. But we decided to make the best of it. I told my kids that she won’t die and that mom is stronger than two trains.
At the rehab center, Sarah learned to walk with a prosthesis.
– It was amazing. I felt so small in my wheelchair and it was wonderful to be able to walk again.
Now he wants to fit a bionic arm that can give Sarah back many of the functions she lost in the accident. But it costs. The technology, surgery and rehabilitation are priced at £250,000.
It went viral on Linkedin
The couple organized a fundraiser at gofundme.com.
Sarah first shared the story in one Posts on Linkedin. At the time of writing, the post has over 50,000 likes.
– I think it’s pretty cruel, and that’s what I tried to explain in the LinkedIn post. I never thought it would reach so many people.
They have raised £256,000 so far.
