Craig Mackinlay, the Conservative MP for South Thanet, has returned to Parliament for the first time after suffering a life-threatening episode of sepsis that led to the amputation of his hands and feet. Mr. Mackinlay recalled the shock of waking up from an induced coma to find his limbs had turned completely black. He said they felt “like plastic…you could almost knock them…they were black, desiccating, clenched”. The MP, who has been fitted with prosthetic legs and hands, now hopes to be known as the first “bionic MP”.
Mr. Mackinlay first began feeling unwell on 27 September. He took a Covid test which came back negative, but after becoming badly sick overnight, his wife, a pharmacist, grew worried and tested his blood pressure and temperature. By the morning, she noticed his arms felt cold, and with an ambulance called, Mr. Mackinlay was admitted to hospital.
Within half an hour, Mr. Mackinlay had turned what he called “a very strange blue”. He had gone into septic shock. He remained in an induced coma for 16 days, with staff describing him as “one of the illest people they’d ever seen”. His chances of survival stood at just 5%.
Despite what he has gone through, Mr. Mackinlay still plans to fight the next election in his Kent constituency, due to be renamed Thanet East. He also wants to make sure sepsis is recognised at the earliest opportunity and to make it easier for amputees to get the prosthetics they need. Furthermore, he aspires to become known as the “bionic MP” and wants children, when visiting parliament’s education centre, to be pulling on their teachers and parents’ jackets or skirts and saying: “I want to see the bionic MP today”
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