A UK politician who was forced to have his hands and feet amputated after contracting sepsis received a heroes welcome as he returned to Parliament for the first time today.
MP Craig Mackinlay, 57, was met by thundering applause as he headed back into the House of Commons on Wednesday (22 May) since his diagnosis in September last year.
In a post on X last October, the Conservative MP explained: "On Thursday 28 September, I was rushed into hospital with the potential for sepsis. This was indeed correct and I was placed into an induced coma with multiple organ failures.
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"Treatment has been exemplary by all NHS staff and I can’t thank them enough.
"I am now on a slow road to recovery with services to constituents maintained by my East Kent and London offices."
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was among the well wishers who said they hoped he had a 'full and speedy recovery' following the life-threatening health scare.
Mackinlay ended up having to have his hands and feet amputated due to sepsis and has now returned to work.
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Have a look at how his fellow MP's reacted to his comeback here:
Parliamentary protocol seemed to go straight out the window as soon as those inside the House of Commons saw Mackinlay walk in, as the chamber erupted into applause - despite clapping being banned.
MPs are warned that it is 'not allowed as it eats into the time available for debate'.
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The Modernisation Committee also reckon 'there is a danger that such a practice might be open to abuse and could lead in certain circumstances to orchestration of what would amount to standing ovations with the success or failure of a speech being judged not by its content but by the relative length of the ovation at the end'.
But who gives a toss about that when a bloke who has come back from the brink of death is walking in the room, eh?
Conservative MP Mackinlay strode inside the Commons ahead of the weekly session of Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) today (22 May), for the first time since he took gravely ill in September last year.
He spent 16 days in an induced coma last December and awoke to find that his limbs had turned completely black, telling the BBC they were 'like plastic...you could almost knock them...they were black, desiccating, clenched'.
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The dad said: "I haven't got a medical degree but I know what dead things look like. They managed to save above the elbows and above the knees. So you might say I'm lucky."
You can probably now understand why Mackinlay's return made for such an emotional moment among MPs, as a lot of them feared they might never see him again.
Mackinlay's beloved wife, Kati, was watching him lap up the applause and make his debut as the first 'bionic MP' from the public gallery with their four-year-old daughter Olivia.
Following the amputation and gruelling months of recovery, Mackinlay was fitted with prosthetic legs and hands.
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Five months after he first started to feel unwell on 28 February, he was able to walk his first 20 steps unaided.
Although he think's his prosthetics are 'amazing', he has come to terms with the fact that they are 'never going to be quite the same'.
Mackinlay also suffered scarring on gums and face due to the sepsis, causing his front teeth to loosen - but he is determined to remain 'cheerful and positive' and continue making progress with his health.
Upon his return to work, he has said he will focus on campaigning which will make sure 'the health service recognises sepsis at the earliest opportunity', even though this wouldn't have made a difference to his condition.
Mackinlay added: "It would have done nothing for me, mine was unusual. But for many people, there should be a recognition that you've got something severely wrong.
"A broad spectrum of antibiotics could stop you from losing limbs."
Olivia Burke