Kirk faces a potentially long recovery from stroke

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Kirk faces a potentially long recovery from stroke


Chances for full mental recovery are good; chances for full physical recovery are 'not great,' his neurosurgeon says

By Rick Pearson and Deborah L. Shelton, Chicago Tribune reporters
January 24, 2012

First-term Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk faces a potentially long road back from a weekend stroke that his neurosurgeon said could leave the lawmaker with lasting physical damage but also a full mental recovery.

The 52-year-old North Shore politician was under sedation after a three-hour operation that ended early Monday in which surgeons removed part of his skull to relieve pressure caused by swelling on the right side of his brain, Dr. Richard Fessler said.

The surgery came about 36 hours after the senator called his internist complaining of seeing white flecks, numbness in his left arm and unusual sensations in his left leg, said Dr. Jay Alexander, a cardiologist at NorthShore University HealthSystem Medical Group.

The severity of Kirk's illness was surprising, given his age, physical fitness and regimen as a Naval Reserve intelligence officer who still spends time in the Pentagon war room. Disclosure of the senator's condition prompted an outpouring of prayers and well-wishes that crossed party lines in Washington and Illinois.

Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney, whom Kirk endorsed a little more than a month ago, issued a statement saying he was "extremely distressed" and hoped for "a swift return" to the Senate.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, the state's senior senator and the No. 2 ranking Democrat in the chamber, said he was "stunned" by news of Kirk's illness and said his staff has offered to help with the Republican senator's duties.

"We all feel, to a person, that he will make a strong recovery," Durbin said on the Senate floor Monday evening. "He has a tough, steep hill ahead of him, but he is up to the task."

The immediate question turned to Kirk's prospects for recovery. Kirk is Illinois' leading Republican in a state dominated by Democrats, and the senator had been using his role to try to bolster public and financial support for GOP candidates.

Fessler, who performed the surgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, said Kirk had a "good" probability of making a full mental recovery from tearing of a carotid artery that stopped blood flow to the right side of his brain, leading to an ischemic stroke. But Fessler said the chance of Kirk making a full physical recovery was "not great."

Fessler said the stroke will affect Kirk's "ability to move his left arm, possibly his left leg and possibly will involve some facial paralysis. Fortunately, the stroke was not on the left side of his brain, in which case it would affect his ability to speak, understand and think."

The doctor said he was hopeful that after rehabilitation, Kirk would regain use of his left leg, but he said prospects for regaining the full use of his left arm were "very difficult."

Fessler also said recovery is a matter of weeks or months. "It's not going to be days," he said. Kirk's relative youth and good physical shape are positives, Fessler said, and he expects Kirk could return to "a very vibrant life."

The senator returned to the Chicago area Friday evening after completing a weeklong series of visits to southern and central Illinois. Arriving at a staff member's going-away party after traveling through a snowstorm, Kirk appeared drawn and tired but conversed without difficulty to partygoers.

Kirk was driving to Chicago around noon Saturday when he called Alexander, his doctor and friend of about a dozen years, to report the symptoms. Alexander told him to drive to the emergency room at Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital, where Alexander met him.

"We elected to get a CAT scan and a CTA — or CT angiogram, a type of CAT scan of the carotid arteries," Alexander said. "The CTA showed the problem with his right carotid artery. There was a blockage, which we believed was due to a dissection (tear) of the right internal carotid artery."

After he arrived and for hours afterward, Kirk appeared to be doing well and was in stable condition, Alexander said. "We elected a treatment of bed rest, keeping his blood pressure in the normal to slightly above normal range and use of anticoagulants," the doctor said.

Hours later, however, Kirk's condition "quickly deteriorated," a hospital spokeswoman said. Around 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, Kirk reported "more sensory impairment of his left side, more numbness and tingling, and more visual impairment," Alexander said.

Doctors thought he could be having a stroke. Kirk was taken to Northwestern Memorial, a certified stroke center.

"We chatted the whole time down there," Alexander said. "As I told him, he has everything going for him. He's a young man. He's a healthy man. Prognostically, those are the people who do well."

After spending Sunday at Northwestern, Kirk underwent surgery shortly before midnight.

This month, Kirk started year two of his six-year term in the Senate. The former five-term congressman defeated then-Democratic state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias in November 2010. The victory was viewed as a national trophy for Republicans, who captured Democratic President Barack Obama's former Senate seat after a bitter and expensive campaign.

In addition to winning the general election, Kirk also won a special election the same day to serve out the remainder of Obama's Senate term. A federal court had ordered the special election, ruling that appointed Sen. Roland Burris could not serve out the rest of Obama's term and setting a new standard for filling Senate vacancies in Illinois.

Burris had been appointed by disgraced former Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich a month after Blagojevich's arrest by federal agents on charges that included attempting to sell the Obama vacancy for personal and political profit. Blagojevich was convicted on federal corruption charges in a second trial in July and was sentenced last month to 14 years in prison.

Under the court ruling, if a Senate vacancy occurs, Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn could still make a temporary appointment, but he also would have to call a special election for voters to choose a permanent replacement, which would be held at the next federal election. Quinn would be free to appoint a Republican or Democrat.

Kirk is a social moderate and fiscal conservative who has sought to bring some elements of bipartisanship to a Washington entrenched in partisanship.

For Obama's State of the Union address, Kirk was to have sat with Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Both senators had urged their leadership to seek a major deficit reduction package rather than what ultimately passed.

Also, Kirk has worked with Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., in winning Senate support of legislation aimed at curbing Iran as a nuclear threat by requiring sanctions against financial institutions that do business with the Central Bank of Iran. Kirk also is among a bipartisan group of senators urging the European Union to adopt stronger sanctions against Iran's Central Bank.

Closer to home, Kirk has regularly worked with Durbin on a number of issues to help Illinois, most recently urging the Surface Transportation Board to help Barrington's push for more cooperation from the Canadian National Railway Co. Village officials said the railroad's acquisition of the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway Co. has resulted in far worse highway traffic tie-ups than projected.

Kirk also was among four senators who secretly traveled to Libya in September. This month, Kirk visited Poland along with Democratic U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley of Chicago's North Side.

Tribune reporters Katherine Skiba and Monique Garcia contributed.

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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-mark-kirk-stroke-20120124,0,4833671.story

Editor's note: Mark, Bev and I wish you a speedy and complete recovery. Our prayers go with you.