MP Craig Mackinlay has shared the harrowing final video before he had both of his ‘useless’ hands and feet amputated after horrific sepsis left them ‘dead’ and ‘gnarled’.
The Tory MP for South Thanet, 57, said he was ‘lucky to be alive’ after the horrific illness, which first afflicted him in September, left him with four prosthetic limbs.
He woke up from a 16-day coma in November with completely blackened limbs, due to the clots and lack of circulation caused by his illness.
Mr Mackinlay recorded from his hospital bed in St Thomas’ Hospital in London on November 30, two months after being admitted, showing his blackened arms and feet the day before they were to be removed.
‘The reality is that I probably shouldn’t have survived this far,’ he said.
He said that sepsis had caused the ‘complete death of my hands and feet’.
‘The reason for the doing the video today of course is that this is the last time that these old things that have served me well for 57 years will be attached to me.
‘They look rather like peat-bog. They’re sort of gnarled, dry, desiccated. It will be like saying goodbye to old friends.’
MP Craig Mackinlay has broken his silence after losing both of his hands and feet to sepsis admitting he was ‘lucky to be alive’ after the horrific illness left him with four prosthetic limbs
‘BIONIC MP’: Tory Craig Mackinlay pictured at his home wearing his prosthetic limbs
The Tory MP for South Thanet, 57, is set to return to Parliament after he nearly died from the life-threatening disease in September
Mr Mackinlay had to have significant portions of his arms and legs removed to save his life. But the defiant parliamentarian has said he is now ready to return to Parliament – and wants to be known as the ‘bionic MP’.
And speaking to GB News today, he said: ‘The price I’m going to pay for living is some quite serious disability.’
Adding about the appearance of his arms and feet, he added they ‘went completely black – they looked like pharaohs arms, sort of dug out of the desert’.
But he seemed upbeat, saying hopefully he ‘might be a little taller’ with his new bionic limbs.
The Kent MP started feeling unwell on September 27 but thought it was no worse than the beginnings of a cold, and he even took a Covid test which came back negative.
But his pharmacist wife Kati became more concerned for her husband’s health throughout the night after testing his blood pressure and temperature. And she could not even feel a pulse on his stone cold arms by the morning.
Speaking to GB News, Mrs Mackinlay said: ‘The ambulance first didn’t want to take him to hospital. The only bad marker he had was sugar level which was very very low but once he had breakfast that came back up.
‘They were thinking whether to see his GP or rush him to hospital.’
She said they ‘luckily’ chose to send for an ambulance but when he arrived ‘things started to speed up’.
Mr Mackinlay was suffering from the DIC effect – an out of control sepsis infection.
He had suffered multiple organ failure and started to turn blue after being rushed to hospital as the sepsis took hold.
** WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT BELOW **
Craig Mackinlay pictured in St Thomas’ hospital on November 30 with blackened limbs after suffering from sepsis
‘It went completely black – they looked like pharaohs arms, sort of dug out of the desert’
Craig Mackinlay spoke to GB News about his sepsis ordeal ahead of his return to parliament
In December he said he was ‘extremely lucky to be alive’ after undergoing ‘extreme surgery
But today he detailed the harrowing episode in full, including waking up in St Thomas’s Hospital to find his limbs had turned black.
Mr Mackinlay’s situation escalated rapidly. After feeling mildly unwell one night in late September, he was badly sick during the night, and by morning his wife could not feel a pulse.
Shocking images show the MP looking down at his affected limbs before they were removed.
‘I could see black arms and my wife was explaining what happened,’ he told GB News.
‘I think I was still on the joys of fentanyl and all the rest of it by then, so I was in and out of lucidity. But I could see these things (hands) were probably lost.
‘It became obvious. My fingers were completely fixed into a clenched fist. As for my toes, I could move a couple of toes on my left leg but there was sort of a little sign of life in them.
‘Maybe they could have saved a bit of a foot but my surgeon said ‘you are better off having them off’, because you can have prosthetics and you’ll walk far better than having a partial foot.’
Craig Mackinlay and his wife Kati arrive at the counting centre of the Thanet South constituency on May 8, 2015 before he was elected as the local MP
Craig MacKinlay outside 10 Downing Street for a cabinet meeting on September 2, 2019
Doctors were even considering the possibility of issuing a do-not-resuscitate order if his heart stopped.
But he took his first 20 steps unaided after the surgery on February 28, marking a major milestone in his recovery after a sombre Christmas period. Thankfully, he said, his four year old daughter Olivia dealt with the situation well.
Sepsis occurs when the immune system overreacts to an infection.
In 2016, the Daily Mail launched the End the Sepsis Scandal campaign following the tragic case of William Mead, who died at 12 months old after a catalogue of errors and misdiagnoses.
But despite the trauma, Mr Mackinlay has said he is ‘ready to get back in the saddle’ and serve his constituents – as well as inspire the next generation.
First elected in 2015, the outspoken MP has even said he will contest his seat at the next election.
He added: ‘[I want to] get back to the things I really enjoy. Get back speaking out for the population of South Thanet and get ready for that election and try and get some decent manifesto points in with the pressure I want to bear.
‘I’m hoping people might give me the benefit of the doubt and say, “That man has been a fighter for himself, he’s damn well going to fight for me, I’m going to give him my support”.
‘The bionic MP is what I want to be. When children come up to Parliament and go to the gallery or go to the school section that Parliament does very well, I want children to be tugging on their mother’s coats and saying, “I want to see the bionic MP today”. That’s what I want to do.’
He has said the loss of his hands has been the most difficult thing to deal with, and that the prosthetic replacements will ‘never be the same.’
He told the BBC: ‘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.’
Paying tribute to Mr Mackinlay following the announcement, former immigration minister Robert Jenrick posted on X: ‘An exceptionally brave man.
‘Look forward to welcoming you back to Westminster.’
Tory backbencher Mark Jenkinson said: ‘Craig’s story is a remarkable one.
‘His bravery and strength, and that of his wife Kati and daughter Olivia, is incredible.’
Tory MP Marco Longhi said: ‘Brilliant to see Craig back! I know it’s frowned upon to clap in the chamber, but I’ll struggle not to. Hero.’
Dr Neil Hudson, another Conservative MP, added: ‘Craig is an inspiration and bravely raising public awareness of the risks of sepsis.’
