AN EAST Yorkshire MP has been flown back to Hull Royal Infirmary for major surgery following a skiing accident.
Graham Stuart, MP for Beverley and Holderness, underwent almost five hours of surgery to fit plates in his fractured pelvis yesterday.
Mr Stuart injured his pelvis, fractured several ribs and punctured a lung in a fall during a weekend skiing trip with friends in the French resort of Chamonix on March 17.
His condition was described as "comfortable" after the surgery.
A spokesman at Mr Stuart's Westminster office said: "Dozens of people have been in touch to send their best wishes to Graham and wish him a speedy recovery.
"Graham is also keen to get back on the recovery trail.
"He has been trying his best to work from his hospital bed on his iPad and has been staying in touch with what's been happening since the accident.
"Fortunately the operation has happened during recess so it's a little quieter, we hope he will be well on the way to recovery by the time Parliament returns on April 15.
"I don't think he will be back at Westminster by then but I'm sure he will be working via emails and so on."
The Tory MP, who spent two weeks in a French hospital, was flown to Humberside Airport and transferred to Hull Royal Infirmary's intensive care unit on Monday.
He had been due to have surgery on his pelvis in a hospital in Sallanches, near Chamonix, on Friday but the operation had to be cancelled because of concerns about his punctured lung.
Speaking from his hospital bed in Hull Royal Infirmary's intensive care unit ahead of yesterday's operation, Mr Stuart said: "Hopefully, it will go well. It's a major operation, then I hope to be home in a week."
Mr Stuart, 51, had suffered difficulty breathing and moving after his fall on the ski slopes.
He said: "I had a pretty hard fall.
"I couldn't move. Initially, I couldn't breathe, which was a little worrying, then I couldn't move.
"Friends were with me. They immediately called a pisteur [ski patrolman] and I was taken off on the back of a skidoo on a stretcher.
"I was in pain at that point but they couldn't give me any pain relief.
"On the skidoo, I was thinking this was going to be the most painful thing in my life."
Mr Stuart was taken down the mountain by cable car.
He was then transported by ambulance, first to Chamonix and then to a hospital in Sallanches for a CT scan.
He said his injuries were the worst he has suffered while skiing.
He said: "I have twisted my leg skiing but I have never had anything like this before."
An experienced skier, Mr Stuart was on a weekend trip with a group of male friends when the accident happened in Chamonix, which has a worldwide reputation for extreme skiing and challenging terrain.
The area at Les Grand Montets has some of the most difficult pistes in Europe.
Visibility was poor when the MP's group decided to head for a restaurant at the bottom of a piste.
Mr Stuart said: "It was not some dramatic off-piste, it was at the bottom of a piste by the largest restaurant in Les Grand Montets.
"Visibility was poor. I think I missed a drop, the next thing I knew was my tips must have gone in first, my skis flew off and I crashed on the rock hard ground immediately in front of the restaurant."
Mr Stuart, who is the chairman of the government's education committee, has been working from hospital while awaiting surgery.
He hopes to be able to return to his home in Beverley next week.
