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Complication following Falk eye surgery
May 28, 2010 – Specialists at University of Illinois Medical Center found no permanent damage this morning to the one working eye of Vincent Falk, but say it could be several weeks before his vision returns. The Marina City resident, known in downtown Chicago as the man who dances on bridges for the amusement of tour boats, experienced a complication following surgery on Monday that left him at least temporarily blind.
Falk, now 60, was born with glaucoma in one eye and is blind in the other eye. On Monday, he was at UIC for a scheduled glaucoma procedure. He stayed overnight and was back at Marina City the next day. “I seemed to be seeing clearly,” he said on Thursday. “Everything seemed to be ok. I even tried out the new Subway and got that sub sandwich they’ve been advertising the heck out of on the radio.” Falk became ill Tuesday night. He also noticed an area of darkness in part of his field of vision. “It looked like I could see through the area that was darker. Everything was still blurred because I still had the ointment in there.” Convinced his eye was getting better, Falk went back to bed but “when I woke up the next morning, all of a sudden I noticed I was completely blind.” With assistance, Falk made it back to the Eye and Ear Infirmary at UIC. Another operation was performed on Falk’s left eye on Thursday to drain fluid from behind his retina, the light-sensitive layer of nerves in the back of the eye. The left eye was bandaged and Falk was in good spirits on Thursday afternoon, cracking jokes with nurses. “Even though I can’t see anything, I can still see a circle of light,” he says. “When I’m looking at direct light, I can still see the light around there. I can still see movement.” Falk was the subject of a documentary that was shown earlier this month at the Gene Siskel Film Center. A cornea transplant in 2008 resulted in some improvement to his vision.
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