CHICAGO SUN TIMES
Sen. Kirk medical letter: ‘Full cognitive recovery’ from stroke
by Lynn Sweet
September 14, 2016

A massive stroke that kept Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., out of the Senate for nearly a year has left him with impaired vision in one eye, occasional halting speech, no use of an arm and limited use of a leg, according to a short medical letter his campaign released on Wednesday. The Kirk campaign issued a three-paragraph letter dated July 19, 2016, from Dr. Richard Fessler, the Chicago neurosurgeon who performed Kirk’s brain surgery after his Jan. 21, 2012, stroke…Kirk’s stroke did not impact “the left side of his brain, which controls cognitive and verbal functions,” Fessler wrote, concluding Kirk “has made a full cognitive recovery.” READ MORE