Kent MP Craig Mackinlay reveals feet and hands were amputated in sepsis ordeal
The South Thanet MP will return to parliament today
Last updated 22nd May 2024
Conservative MP Craig Mackinlay has spoken of the sepsis ordeal which left him with both of his hands and feet amputated.
The South Thanet MP is due to return to Parliament for the first time today (22 May) since he was rushed into hospital on September 28.
He told the BBC he turned "a very strange blue" shortly after being admitted, having gone into septic shock.
He was almost immediately put into a 16-day induced coma, with his wife told he had only a 5% chance of survival.
On waking up, Mr Mackinlay saw his arms and legs "had turned black" and were "like a plastic" and "looked dead".
The politician said he was "surprisingly stoic" when he was told he would undergo a quadruple amputation on December 1.
"They managed to save above the elbows and above the knees," he told the broadcaster. "So you might say I'm lucky."
In a video recorded on the eve of the operation, obtained by The Telegraph, he said: "The grim reaper has let me survive, but he's taken his payment in four of my limbs."
A "sombre" Christmas followed, he told the BBC, but he marvelled at how quickly his four-year-old daughter Olivia adapted to the situation.
"I think children are just so remarkably adjustable," he said.
"Bionic MP"
The 57-year-old father of one said he wants to be known as the first "bionic MP" after being fitted with prosthetic legs and hands.
Mr Mackinlay's wife Kati and daughter are set to watch his return to Prime Minister's Questions from the public gallery on Wednesday.
The MP is determined to fight the next election in his Kent constituency, due to be renamed Thanet East.
Sepsis is a life-threatening reaction to an infection that occurs when the immune system overreacts and starts to damage the body's tissues and organs.
Mr Mackinlay started his political career in the early 1990s, briefly leading the United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip) before leaving to join the Conservative Party in 2005.