'Bionic lord' takes seat in upper house

Parliament's first "bionic lord" has taken his seat in the House of Lords and said he will use his position to raise awareness of sepsis and improve the quality of prosthetics offered to amputees.

On Thursday, Lord Mackinlay of Richborough became the first quadruple amputee to sit in the House of Lords after he was given a peerage in Rishi Sunak's dissolution honours list.

The former MP had both his legs and arms amputated in December after contracting sepsis.

He said he "loved" his nine years as the Conservative MP for South Thanet, but being appointed to the Lords had given him "a new lease of life".

His wife and daughter were among family and friends who looked on from the gallery above as Lord Mackinlay signed the members’ book with his “bionic” hand.

Others watching in the chamber included Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, former deputy speaker Nigel Evans, and Conservative MP Mark Francois.

Lord MacKinlay, 58, said of his experience of life after sepsis: "You're reliant on other people, and you do get frustrated.

"I've never been the most patient of characters even before this.

"But there's two things that keep me going really.

"I can do more things today than I could do yesterday, so I'll be able to do more tomorrow.

"And, you've got to say well it's better than the alternative, and I was very close to the alternative, which was death."

In September last year, the sitting MP was rushed to hospital and put into a 16-day induced coma - his wife was told he had only a 5% chance of survival.

Lord Mackinlay said he had tried multiple different private manufacturers of prosthetics, but there was a "postcode lottery" when it came to "access to the right prosthetics at the right time" on the NHS.

"That's a battle I'm going to have with the secretary of state," he said.

The peer said he would also call for sepsis to have "similar recognition" to strokes.

"We devote a lot of time to looking at other diseases, but not quite the same to this mass killer," he added.

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