A mother was left crawling on all fours after doctors told her three times that her broken leg was just a pulled hamstring.

39-year-old Sarah Jayne Roche broke her thigh bone in a half marathon on October 7 last year in Wales. Sadly, she died after her injury was dismissed as a pulled hamstring.

The mother-of-two was raising funds for Parkinsons UK after her father was diagnosed with the condition.

She was given painkillers as her leg continued to swell. X-rays were not carried out until several days later. But during the hour-long operation to fix her broken femur, Sarah suffered a cardiac arrest.

She left behind her two sons aged 8 and 12, and her husband Steven, 42.

“As upset as I feel, I feel more aggrieved for our two boys,” Steven expressed. “Robbed is probably the best word.

“At least I had 18 years with her, whereas they are not going to have their good times, be that going through school, my first whatever – she’s not going to be there.”

On the day of the marathon, the mother was brought to a medical tent and examined by volunteers. Her husband said: “From July onwards we were training two, maybe three times a week.

“When she pulled up I stopped alongside and asked her what it was. She said she couldn’t run anymore. She just felt a shooting pain.

“I just thought at first she had a bit of cramp but then she said she couldn’t move that’s when we called for help. They called for an ambulance and after maybe 20 or 30 minutes Sarah told me to go on and finish the race.”

Sarah was told that the pain was likely from a pulled hamstring and was advised to take paracetamol and apply ice over the area. Concerned by the shooting pain the mother was in, her family took her to Royal Glamorgan hospital.

“We eventually got seen by somebody in A&E. Based on what they had seen, even though she couldn’t weight bare, they said they suspected a hamstring tear of some sort and gave the same advice with paracetamol and to put some ice on it.

“The following day the pain hadn’t alleviated and Sarah was complaining one leg was colder than the other, the affected leg.

“Later that afternoon we went to the Royal Glam and after several hours eventually got seen by a consultant. They didn’t feel any other investigation was needed. She even struggled to use crutches the pain was that much.

“She was literally on her hands and knees to shuffle herself up the stairs. She just acted on the advice the hospital gave her. You just assume this is what happens but after three four days the pain wasn’t getting better.”

The pain intensified and for the fourth time, her parents took their daughter back to the hospital. It was then found that she had fractured her femur.

“They did a small operation to straighten out her leg as much as possible and booked her for the operation on the Friday afternoon,” Steven said.

“It was after 4pm [when] they suddenly came in and sat down with me and said problems had arisen and that she had gone into cardiac arrest.

“Things went downhill from there. They tried as best they could to resuscitate her back. The family arrived and we were there and that was that.

“It was difficult because no sooner had it happened, you’re seeing it there in front of your eyes, then 20, 30 minutes after you have to come home and tell your children mummy is not going to be back.

“It’s a different type of trauma. It’s not like she had cancer and we were expecting it, we were expecting her to come out and recover.”

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