A mother who lost an arm and a leg when two Tube trains ran her over will become the first person in the world to operate a new AI bionic arm that can read her mind.
Sarah de Lagarde, from Camden, north London, was travelling home from work last September when she lost her footing and fell down the gap between the train and the platform edge.
Her right arm and leg were crushed when the train hit her as it left High Barnet station. She was then run over again by another Tube pulling in, furthering her injuries.
It took around 15 minutes for somebody to hear her cries and call the emergency services. She was then flown to hospital and later taken to a specialist unit where her arm and leg were amputated.
Ms de Lagarde, who has described herself as 80 per cent human and 20 per cent robot, will soon be using a new £250,000 bionic arm that she told The Times ‘can give me a piece of my life back’.
Sarah de Lagarde, from Camden, north London, was travelling home from work last September when she lost her footing and fell down the gap between the train and the platform edge
Both her right arm and leg were crushed when the train hit her as it left High Barnet station. She was then run over again by another Tube pulling in, furthering her injuries
She will now become the first person in the world to operate a new AI bionic arm (pictured) that can read her mind
Both Sarah de Lagarde’s right arm and leg were crushed when the train hit her as it left High Barnet station. She was then run over again by another Tube pulling in, furthering her injuries. Her prosthetic leg is pictured above
The mother-of-two claims the bionic arm, which uses AI technology, features software that will ‘learn which movements I make most frequently’ and over time ‘make it easier for me to do them’.
She told the newspaper that her brain will move the arm.
‘The socket will attach to my upper arm and it will have sensors which detect my muscle twitches and the software will convert those impulses into arm movements,’ she explained.
Ms de Lagarde says her daughters are ‘really excited’ about the technology and have started asking her ‘how powerful’ the arm is or ‘what it will be able to crush’.
She added: ‘I have seen videos where the hand is able to hold an egg with three fingers or pick up a coin from a table.’
Ms de Lagarde recently began training for the bionic hand, which was created by Leeds-based company Covvi.
The family began fundraising for the device after learning prosthetic arms available on the NHS are mostly for cosmetic purposes.
Her daughters’ school held a walk to raise money and people from across the world pledged their support for Ms de Lagarde’s recovery.
She has now hailed people for being ‘so generous’, telling The Times: ‘Even people donating £2 made me feel quite emotional.’
Sarah de Lagarde (pictured) claims the bionic arm, which uses AI technology, features software that will ‘learn which movements I make most frequently’ and over time ‘make it easier for me to do them’
Ms de Lagarde (pictured) says her daughters are ‘really excited’ about the technology and have started asking her ‘how powerful’ the arm is or ‘what it will be able to crush’
Last year, Ms de Lagarde was on track to have the ‘best year of my life’, she wrote on her fundraising page in December.
‘I was enjoying my job, I went on outdoor adventures with my kids and climbed Kilimanjaro in August and then about a month later my year took a dark turn.
‘Next year will be a whole new adventure, hopefully including new well functioning artificial limbs! I wish you all a fabulous year end, stay healthy and happy.’
Speaking three months on from the accident, Ms de Lagarde told Good Morning Britain that despite it being a ‘terrible thing to happen’, she felt ‘so privileged and grateful that I am alive’.
She shared a message of hope in December on the popular day time TV programme, saying: ‘Life is so so precious and an accident like this could have happened to anyone.
‘That’s the thing and it makes you realise how precarious your life is and instead of worrying about the smaller things in life we should be focusing on the things that really matter and for me it was saying “I love my family, I love my husband, I love my children” and that sentiment should override everything else so don’t sweat the small stuff.’
