February 27, 2012 – Vincent Falk, the downtown Chicago resident who was the subject of a 2008 documentary, returns home to Marina City on Monday, following his fourth cornea transplant and more than two months of recovery.

Blind since birth in his right eye and afflicted with glaucoma in his left eye, Falk underwent the transplant on December 13, 2011, at University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago. Doctors then sewed his eye shut to help it heal. With his vision even more limited than usual, Falk has been living at Warren Barr Pavilion, a nursing facility in River North.

“My vision isn’t as good as it was before but I expect it to get better eventually,” said Falk on Sunday. “It has been this bad before and it’s gotten better.”

A bandage contact lens is helping to offset a surface defect that appeared on the new cornea. Falk says he was told on Friday by his doctors that the cornea otherwise “looks pretty good” and there are no problems with the retina.

His previous cornea transplant was in September 2008.

Now 62 years old, Falk retired recently after more than 20 years as a computer programmer for Cook County. It has given him more time to help promote the documentary, Vincent: A Life In Color, about his life and fame in recent years.

Last October, he and the film’s director, Jennifer Burns, attended the Olympia Film Society’s documentary festival in Olympia, Washington, where the documentary was shown.

(Above) Falk gives the full treatment to a Chicago River tour boat in May 2010.

 Read more: All MCO stories about Vincent Falk