24 May 2024 , 11:28
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Tory MP Craig Mackinlay has said he won’t stand for re-election. He was given a standing ovation after returning this week after having his limbs amputated because of sepsis
A Tory MP who had both his hands and feet amputated after he got sepsis has announced he will leave Parliament.
Craig Mackinlay was given a standing ovation as he returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday for the first time since his ordeal.
But the inspiring politician, who dubbed himself the "bionic MP", will not to fight the election because it has come too soon for his recovery. The South Thanet MP said that after "36 hours of intense soul searching" following the PM’s surprise election announcement, he had decided to quit.
In a statement to GB News he said: "Whilst my heart tells me to stand again, there being so much unfinished business across local regeneration and national issues which are important to me, my head knows this to be impossible at this time. It would be difficult to withstand the rigours of an all-out election campaign, a campaign that I’d always wish to lead from the front. Thereafter, upon being re-elected it would be difficult for me to sustain 70 to 80 hour working weeks which were the norm prior to my illness.
"I had hoped to phase my return to the House of Commons over the coming months as my abilities improved. Since leaving in-patient rehabilitation a month ago my life now revolves around various medical appointments. I face numerous future operations as a result of the serious sepsis that I suffered which very nearly took my life. I have only just started the prosthetic journey and I have weekly physiotherapy and occupational therapy sessions."
Mr Mackinlay, 57, earlier this week said he wanted to be known as the first "bionic MP” after having prosthetic legs and hands fitted. He began to feel unwell one evening in September last year and went to bed early. His wife Kati, who is a pharmacist, became concerned the next morning after she noticed his arms felt cold and she couldn’t feel a pulse. He was rushed to hospital where within half an hour he turned "a very strange blue". Speaking to BBC News, he said: "My whole body, top to bottom, ears, everything, blue.”
Hospital staff realised he had gone into septic shock and he was put into an induced coma that would last for 16 days. His wife was told she should prepare for the worst as he had only a one in 20 chance of survival. Sepsis is a rare but serious condition that happens when the body’s immune system overreacts to an infection and attacks its own tissues and organs.
When Mr Mackinlay woke up he found that his arms and legs had “turned black” and felt like hard plastic. It was later decided to amputate his limbs. After he came around after the operation in December he said he felt strangely alert and wondered if the amputations had not actually taken place. "But I woke up and I looked down and you obviously realise that they had,” he told BBC News.
After having prosthetics fitted, Mr Mackinlay has had to relearn how to walk. He said the loss of his hands has been the hardest thing to deal with. "You don’t realise how much you do with your hands... use your phone, hold the hand of your child, touch your wife, do the garden," he said, adding that his prosthetic hands are "amazing... but it’s never going to be quite the same”.
Despite feeling “lucky” to be alive, Mr Mackinlay said he sometimes has "low moments". "You’re in the land of nod having a nice dream, and then you wake up and it’s ’I haven’t got any hands’,” he said. "That is the realisation every morning.
"It’s very easy to say - and I do try and stick to it - there’s not much point moaning and complaining or getting down about the things you can’t do. You’ve got to be cheerful and positive about things you can do and I find every day there’s something new that I can do.” Mr Mackinlay paid tribute to his wife and his four-year-old daughter Olivia, who he said had adapted “probably better than anybody else frankly”.