A mother who lost an arm and a leg in a freak Tube accident, has become the world’s first AI bionic mum – and has revealed what life is like using the prosthetic limb.
Sarah de Lagarde, 44, from Camden, north London joined Good Morning Britain hosts Ed Balls and Charlotte Hawkins today to unveil the groundbreaking invention, and reveal how life has changed after becoming a ‘bionic mum’.
The mother-of-two, was travelling home from work last September when she lost her footing on a rain-soaked platform and fell down a gap between the train and the platform. She was run over by two trains, crushing her right arm and leg – Sarah was told she ‘could have died at least ten times’ on the night of her accident.
The £250,000 bionic arm, which uses artificial intelligence technology, operates by reading her mind and converting her thoughts to muscle ‘twitches’, before making the limb move.
Now the mum, who heads a communications company and describes herself as ’80 per cent human and 20 per cent robot’ – is in good spirits after being able to ‘hug my children with two arms’ again.
Sarah de Lagarde (pictured), 44, from Camden, joined Good Morning Britain hosts today to unveil the groundbreaking invention, and reveal how life has changed after becoming a ‘bionic mum’
The £250,000 bionic arm, which uses artificial intelligence technology, operates by reading her mind and converting her thoughts to muscle ‘twitches’, before making the limb move
Speaking on GMB she explained: ‘It’s been a long process to get here. I started the process back in January, it took all of this time to train, to understand how this arm functions.
‘The beauty of it is that I can think of a movement and the socket is full of electrodes that read muscle movements, and if I twitch my muscles in a sequence then it translates into a movement.
‘So if I think about opening up my hand, it opens up, if I think about closing my hand, it closes’.
Sarah demonstrated these movements to the camera by opening and closing her bionic fist, as Ed and Charlotte look in awe.
She also explained that part of her still mourns the ‘loss’ of her limbs, but she’s chosen to focus on the ‘excitement’ of the new invention because it ‘enhances what I have’.
Perhaps bringing her the most joy is the reaction of her two daughters, who say the AI arm is ‘cool’ and even compare it to an ‘iPhone’.
‘I think that the part they enjoy the most is the realisation that I can take it off at night and plug it in to charge, just like an iPhone. They find that very funny,’ she said.
‘They also thought it was great to have me present at their school and so they introduce me to their classmates. They say: “My mum’s a robot”.’
The mother-of-two, was travelling home from work last September when she lost her footing on a rain-soaked platform and fell down a gap between the train and the platform. She was run over by two trains, crushing her right arm and leg
She spoke about how the traumatic accident has affected her children, as well as their ‘psychological’ acceptance of the event. However her fears were quickly dispelled.
‘But actually the children are so resilient,’ said Sarah.
‘They quickly realised, this happened. But there is help. And these prosthetic limbs are going to be good.’
Sarah said affording the bionic arm was no easy feat, and was told it was only available on the NHS for cosmetic purposes.
She says her kids were the motivating factor to expedite the process, leading her to opt for crowdfunding.
‘I wasn’t prepared to wait two to three years or even longer to make this happen,’ she explained.
‘For me, I needed this to happen fast because in my head I wanted to hug my children with two arms – and that was the driver’.
Despite only using the arm for two weeks, Sarah now operates it like a pro, after spending months learning how to use it virtually via an app.
The arm has brought her a new lease of life, one she refuses to take for granted.
‘I want to enjoy my life,’ she said. ‘I know what it feels like when you’re about to die.
‘I’m part of this exclusive club that no one wants to be a part of – the amputee club’.
When Charlotte joked about how the arm responds to any embarrassing thoughts, Sarah replied: ‘No there is a delay, there is a lag before my arm moves’.
In September 2022, Sarah had both her right arm and leg crushed when a train pulled out of High Barnet station and ran over her. She was then run over again by another Tube, which caused further injuries.
It took around ten minutes for somebody to hear her cries and call the emergency services. She was flown to hospital and later taken to a specialist unit where her arm and leg were amputated.
Sarah is the first person in the world to operate an AI bionic arm that can read her mind.
