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Teen prepares to use prosthetic leg after sepsis

BBC Hamish looks at the camera and smiles. He is wearing a black t-shirt and we can see his upper torso and head only, he is wearing a gold ring on a chain around his neck. In the background we can see his hospital room including the bed and table as well as a window beyond. BBC
Hamish is being treated at St Thomas' Hospital in London

A Sussex teenager who had a quadruple amputation after contracting sepsis is preparing to stand again as he tries on his first prosthetic limb.

Hamish Wilson, 18, from Crowborough, had just begun university in Southampton when he fell ill in October.

He called his mother one day to say his limbs were aching and he was struggling to breathe, and by the time she had driven down the next day, Hamish had been intubated.

After spending some time at Southampton General Hospital, Hamish was transferred to Royal Papworth Hospital, in Cambridge, and is now being treated at St Thomas' Hospital in London.

Hamish sits on a hospital bed and looks at the camera. He is wearing a prosthetic limb on his lower left leg, while his right is bare and amputated below the knee. Both his arms are bandaged from the wrist, and he is wearing a black t-shirt and black shorts.
Hamish says he is looking forward to running again

Trying on his left prosthetic limb for the first time on Wednesday, Hamish said he was looking forward to being able to run again and, with blades, go back to playing lacrosse, which he had started at university.

"It's a bit sore through the knee, as I suppose it would be, because that's where all the weight is going for now," he added.

Hamish is eager to use his hands again, having had one amputated along with the fingers of the other, but has been told prosthetics for them will come later.

"I want to be able to do more things again. I haven't held anything in months," he added.

Jacqueline Wilson looks off camera in an outside shot with a hospital building and gardens visible behind her. She is wearing a black coat, dark-rimmed glasses and a dark coloured scarf. She has long dark hair.
Jacqueline Wilson, Hamish's mother, said the teen is feeling stronger in spirit

Jacqueline Wilson, Hamish's mother, previously described her son as a tour de force, and said he was "determined" to get back to his deferred university philosophy course.

"They have to wait for the skin [on his hands] to mature," she told BBC South East.

"But he's been reassured that he will be able to do incredible things with what he's got, that he can't imagine.

"That has buoyed his mood, so he's feeling more strong in mind, strong in spirit."

George Murphy stands in front of a large window and there is medical equipment on the wall behind him. He is wearing tortoiseshell rimmed glasses and a grey suit with a blue jumper underneath and a white shirt and dark blue tie.
Doctors at St Thomas' Hospital have been treating Hamish

George Murphy, consultant plastic surgeon at St Thomas's Hospital, said some good skin from below Hamish's leg amputation was used to resurface his right hand.

"My role was to try and give Hamish the best possible function going forward both with and without prostheses," he added.

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