‘Suit Man’ back at UIC for fifth cornea transplant

June 14, 2013 – River North’s “Suit Man” will undergo his fifth cornea transplant on Friday.

Vincent Falk (left), whose life was made into a documentary in 2008, will be at UIC Medical Center, where he was last September for surgery to correct a detached retina.

It is the retina in his one “good” eye that is the real issue. The cornea surgery will give a retina specialist an opportunity to get a clear look.

“The cornea transplant should go well but that’s more for the retina doctor than for me because he needs to be able to see back there to see what’s wrong with the retina,“ said Falk on Wednesday. “He can’t see the retina with the cornea the way it is right now.”

Following the surgery, his eyelid will be stitched shut to help it heal while he recovers at Warren Barr Pavilion in River North.

Falk and his doctors remain hopeful that his vision will improve someday. The 63-year-old retired computer programmer was born with glaucoma in one eye and blind in the other.

Dressed in brightly colored suits, Falk is known in downtown Chicago as the man who dances on bridges over the Chicago River for the amusement of tour boats. Despite health issues he has been out on the bridges near Marina City about every day, usually in the afternoon.

Last December, the 95-minute documentary about Falk, Vincent: A Life In Color, was released on DVD.