He will always rely on a wheelchair and a cane but US Senator Mark Kirk will not allow a stroke to define who he is as a human.
Kirk was in town for the Republican Rally at the State Fair Thursday but made it a point to stop by Memorial Medical Center to visit with fellow stroke victims to offer encouragement. He was struck in 2012.
“There is always a shell around you when you are in a wheelchair where people are a little embarrassed you to ask what happenend. You are not embarrassed to tell them it was a stroke,” says Kirk.
Memorial is one of a handful of hospitals around the nation recognized as a certified Stroke Treatment Center and he says the care offered in Springfield is better than that available in the Chicago area.