A mum has opened up about how she lost an arm and a leg after stumbling at a Tube station and being run over by two trains.
Sarah de Lagarde, 44, slipped on a platform at High Barnet station in London, and was left crying out for help for 15 minutes.
She had been travelling home from work on Friday, 30 September when she fell asleep on the train.
Sarah reportedly remembers waking up with a jolt at High Barnet and getting off the train disorientated.
Rushing to get off the platform, the 44-year-old lost her footing and fell down the gap between the train and the platform edge, also breaking her nose and front teeth.
With nobody near to hear her desperate calls, the 44-year-old recalled lying over the track, with her right arm and leg 'bloodied and mangled', reports The Times.
Several minutes later, another train pulled up, which ran over her limbs a second time. The momentum trapped her underneath and left her huddled in the space between the train’s wheels and the platform.
Fifteen minutes passed until a a Tube driver, who was walking along another platform, finally heard the mum's cries for help as she screamed: “Somebody help me, please. My name is Sarah. I don’t want to die.”
Emergency services then rushed to the scene, and took Ms de Largarde to the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel via air ambulance.
Tragically, the mum from Camden, north London, had to have her leg and arm amputated - just weeks after climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.
After weeks of surgery and rehabilitation, she learnt to walk using a prosthetic leg, and was allowed home on December 1.
The mum says that she used her "energy-saving mode" to help her stay focused and calm while she was on the tracks - something she learnt after embarking on a eight-hour hike to the summit of Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania, at temperatures of -20C with howling winds and a period of complete darkness.
Ms de Lagarde told the Camden New Journal : "All I remember is thinking to myself as I was lying in that dirty ditch in High Barnet that I did not climb Mount Kilimanjaro to die here in the cold wet gravel. I am not dying here. No way. I need to be with my daughters.
"One minute you are on top of the world, the next you're hitting rock bottom."
Following the incident, Ms de Largarde is now fundraising for a sophisticated prosthetic arm, unavailable on the NHS, which is capable of acting on brain signals. She has already exceeded her £250,000 target.
She added that she will donate any excess proceeds to the London Air Ambulance and Barts Charity, who supports staff at hospital she was cared for.
She wrote on her fundraising page: "You all contribute to getting me back up and running (or walking with an artifical leg and a stick).
"You have shown me so much faith, kindness and support from which I'm incredibly grateful. Now that phase 1 is complete, I'm embarking on the next phase: my bionic arm!"
Ms de Lagarde went on to say that despite the family having to make changes to their house, she is very lucky to have such a supportive network around her.
She added that the accident has changed her perspective on life, saying: “Every now and then, when I look at myself in the mirror, I just miss my arm and I miss my leg.
“I miss myself before the accident. But at the end of the day, I’m just grateful that I’m alive.”
The incident at High Barnet over-ground station is under investigation.
You can donate to Sarah's fundraiser here.
The Mirror has contacted TfL for comment.
