Sarah fell and was hit by the London tube: – Scary to see the light getting closer

It is a Friday night in September in the British capital. It’s raining in familiar London style.

It is only a month since Sarah De Lagarde 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.

The mother of small children tries to get an Uber, but all the drivers are busy. She lives not far from work and hops on a subway car on the London Underground, also known as “The Tube”.

Fatigue takes over, and Sarah wakes up at the wrong station. She gets off the track at the terminus, but realizes that the track will run the same route back again. When she is about to go on the field again, the unthinkable happens.

There is water on the platform from the London rain. Sarah slips and falls against the door, which closes again. Suddenly she is between the track and the platform.

No one saw it happen. The train she was supposed to be on ran over her arm and leg and left the station. Sarah is left in the tracks screaming for help. No one heard her.

This was Sarah de Lagarde’s night on 30 September 2022.

– I think I was lying on the track for around fifteen minutes, Sarah tells Nettavisen.

– My name is Sarah and I don’t want to die

The mobile, with a neon orange cover and a neon orange neckband is on the track – two meters from Sarah.

– I noticed it, because it shone in the dark. I thought if I can get to my phone I can call someone. I could not 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, says Sarah.

Sarah tries to open the phone with facial recognition. It is not working.

– I had broken my nose and my teeth. I had a cut on my cheek. The phone did not recognize me. I must have been full of blood.

Then she tries to open the phone by entering the code. The phone is wet and her hands are dirty, and Sarah can’t open the phone with her left hand.

– I remember putting the phone down and thinking “back to plan A”, which was to keep calling for help.

– I shouted “can someone help me? My name is Sarah and I don’t want to die,” she adds.

She shouted this over and over again.

Watching the next train approach

– Did you feel the pain of being hit at this time?

– I felt nothing. I had so much adrenaline. I didn’t panic either.

Then the next train arrives.

– It was quite scary to see the light and hear the noise, and see the light getting closer. 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 train track. I had a great drive inside me that said I should survive this and see my children again. I wasn’t going to die.

Finally, someone hears Sarah and calls 911. At one point, as Sarah waited for the ambulance to arrive, she thought she was going to die.

– A miracle that I survived

– It took time before the ambulance arrived and it took time before the ambulance workers were able to locate me. For a second I felt very cold in the chest and then I thought “this is the sign that I am going to die”.

– I said to the doctor “I think I’m dying, so you have to hurry”. The doctor reassured me and said “just 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 you and save you. Hold out”.

Sarah is taken to the London Royal Hospital and is wheeled into the operating room.

– The doctors have said that it is 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 coming could have crushed me completely. A

Other possible outcomes could have had catastrophic consequences, the doctors say.

– When I reached for my phone I could have hit the electrical circuits on the track. I could also have died from either 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 told at 3:00 in the morning that his wife had been in a train accident.

He has been worried and tried to call repeatedly. But it is Friday night, and he thinks that his wife must be out and about.

– It is the most surreal telephone conversation I have had in my life, says Sarah.

In retrospect, she has thought a lot about the accident, and how brutal life can be at times.

– It is ironic that in August I climbed Africa’s highest mountain, Kilimanjaro, with my husband – and a month later I am in a life-changing accident where I am lying in a dirty ditch. One moment you’re on top of the world and the next you’ve hit rock bottom.

– Please, “mind The gap”.

Sarah thinks it’s important to share her story as she believes this is an accident that could happen to anyone.

– That is the space in between. We always hear it “Mind the gap, mind the gap”. I have lived here for quite a few years and after a while you don’t realize that an accident can happen. You feel quite confident and don’t realize that this can happen within a second.

This is also one of the reflections she wants others to take with them when they read her story.

– Please, “min the gap”.

In addition, she wants to emphasize that it is important to have a positive attitude.

– In two months I have gone from being in a life-threatening accident to being able to walk straight out of a rehabilitation centre. It is quite extraordinary. People usually take longer. I think it’s about having a positive mindset.

A lot has to be relearned. Sarah is right-handed, but now she has to write with her left hand. Sarah decided quite early on that she wasn’t going to drown in her sorrows, she tells Nettavisen.

What has happened has happened.

– It is sad. I could have taken a taxi 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 am alive.

Want an innovative, bionic arm

When Nettavisen spoke to Sarah, two months had passed since the accident. The first six weeks after the accident she spent in a rehabilitation center.

– My children were very scared at first because they didn’t think mum would ever come home. But we decided to make the best of it. I told my children that I am not going to die and that mommy is stronger than two trains.

At the rehabilitation 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 she 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 have a price tag of £250,000.