A fundraising campaign has been set up for a Montreal woman who lost both of her legs after she was hit by a train in early December.
Friends set up the campaign for Sarah Stott, to help her pay her medical bills and buy a set of prosthetic legs. The campaign has raised more than $28,000 as of Wednesday afternoon.
Sarah, 22, was coming home from a shift at the Irish Embassy Pub in downtown Montreal on Dec. 8 when she was hit by a Canadian National Railway train at approximately 3 a.m.
Her mother, Shelley Stott, told CTV Montreal that her daughter saw a train parked on one set of tracks and thought it would be safe to cross. However, Sarah didn't see another train approaching on a different set of tracks and was struck, Shelley Stott said.
Sarah, who remained conscious throughout the entire ordeal, remained by the tracks for three to four hours before she was able to flag down another train for help.
She is now in hospital and has undergone numerous surgeries and has had at least 40 blood transfusions, her mother said.
"She was hooked up to 15 different machines," Shelley Stott said. "I don't know how many tubes were coming out of her, and she's had at least 15 surgeries so far. And they have a (tracheotomy) in her throat because she still has more to go."
When Sarah was first brought to the hospital she was suffering from hypothermia. Her hands were so frostbitten that her fingertips are black, her mother said.
However, doctors say it may have been the extreme cold that night that ended up saving Sarah's life. They say the cold temperature protected her brain and caused her blood to clot, preventing severe hemorrhaging.
