Why would a U.S. Senator check into the hospital using an alias?

[NNN0LHI]

http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/lawmaker-news/236733-mark-kirks-use-of-an-assumed-name-last-january-was-not-the-first-time

Mark Kirk’s use of an assumed name — last January was not the first time

By Carol Felsenthal - 07/09/12 01:41 PM ET

Yesterday’s Chicago Tribune story about the queasiness of public officials revealing hospitalizations sent an alarm off in my head. Katherine Skiba and Todd Lighty, in a story prompted by Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.’s (D-Ill.) weird disappearance and the silence in its aftermath, focused also on Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), who, they write, experiencing dizziness and numbness, checked himself into Lake Forest Hospital last Jan. 21 under the assumed name Hillel Underwood.

Skiba and Lighty quote doctors and others saying that using a fake name is done, although not often.

The reporters note that Kirk, 52, refused a request for an interview on the subject and that Eric Elk, Kirk’s Chicago chief of staff, “turned aside the question of whether Kirk had ever used {the alias Hillel Underwood} before."

He has, according to my notes of interviews with Kirk’s ex-wife Kimberly Vertolli. That alias sounded familiar to me because it came up in long conversations with Vertolli that started with my interviews with her in August 2010, during the nasty campaign against Alexi Giannoulias. Vertolli was then supporting Kirk’s election, although given also to harsh criticism of his personal life. (See my two-part Q-and-A with her) The two have since, Vertolli has told me, stopped speaking, and Vertolli filed an FEC complaint against him late last year, alleging, according to Skiba and Lighty, who broke that story in late May, "that the Kirk campaign may have improperly hidden money to {Dodie} McCracken {a former Kirk staffer and romantic interest} by paying her through another company working for the campaign. Because the money was not paid directly to McCracken, her name does not appear in Kirk's federal disclosures.”

[frazzled]

1. To avoid a press onslaught

Look, celebrities do this all the time, at hotels and probably also at hospitals.

I don't blame him for (briefly) using an alias; his real name and medical condition was quickly given out once he was transported to Northwestern Hospital in the city. I don't like Republicans, but I don't think this is a very big deal. The news was out and open within 24 hours of his stroke.

JJJ, now, is another story. Where is he?

[rustydog]

2. Who ever leaked the medical information committed a HUGE HIPPA violation

25,000.00 dollars worth.
You can check into a hospital as a NIK (No Information Known) patient.
People have been charged with crimes using aliases while seeking medical care in an effort to avoid the bill, to get pain killers, etc...

[NNN0LHI]

3. Where was he at and what was he doing when he had this stroke?

Have you ever heard the answers to those questions?

Look, U.S. Senators have staffs to handle any media questions. Well paid staff.

The reason for his using an alias to check into a hospital is still unknown.

And I still haven't heard a logical answer why he did that. I have heard some rumors on the street but nothing definitive yet.

Don

[frazzled]

11. It was well publicized at the time

He drove himself (which seems kind of nuts) to Lake Forest Hospital (a far north suburb), and was transferred to Northwestern Memorial, in the city, soon after.

Kirk, who lives in north suburban Highland Park, was able to drive himself to Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital in Lake Forest after suffering the stroke on Saturday, “where doctors discovered a carotid artery dissection in the right side of his neck,” according to the senator’s office. He was transferred to downtown Northwestern, where further tests revealed he had suffered an ischemic stroke, staffers said.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/10206843-418/story.html

Within two days the surgeon gave a full accounting to the press:

U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk is expected to recover cognitive functions but could have some physical impairment following a weekend stroke, the neurosurgeon who operated on the senator said today following three-hour surgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Dr. Richard Fessler said Kirk was doing “quite well” after the surgery. A four-inch-by-eight-inch portion of his skull was removed to relieve pressure from swelling and he was under sedation as doctors managed the brain trauma, Fessler said, adding he was pleased with Kirk’s response to the surgery.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-01-23/news/chi-sen-mark-kirk-hospitalized-after-suffering-stroke-20120123_1_kirk-eric-elk-carotid-artery

Look, the guy had major brain surgery, couldn't walk or talk. His office was forthcoming within days, and has even later released videos of his rehab, even though they were not all that flattering (he still has slurred speech and frankly can't seem to walk on his own yet). I rue the day this man was elected senator in my state, and I worked mightily against him (even though I didn't care for Alexei Giannoulis). But there's really nothing to see here, and I don't see why a few hours of checking in under a fake name is any big deal. My husband's previous job involved people in the entertainment industry (bigger names than Mark Kirk, for sure), and they very often checked into hotels under assumed names: they either didn't want people dropping off their lousy screenplays for them to read, or they simply wanted the anonymity. We'd have to pick them up for dinner and would be given the "secret name" by their agent or publicist. There is nothing unusual at all about famous people checking into places with other names.

What possible conspiracy do you have in mind for this?

[Downwinder]

4. How do you check into a hospital without clearing all of your insurance papers?

He must have had an additional identity rather than just an alias.

[warrior1]

5. because

it's none of our business.

[treestar]

6. I wonder do we have a similar right to know their medical problems

As we seem to have when it comes to the President?

if your Senator can't function, is there a way to have his job done by someone?

[RB TexLa]

8. You have no right to the president's medical information.

He is a citizen and has the same right to medical privacy as anyone else.

[treestar]

10. I know but it seems to be generally thought that

like their tax returns, they should give up that information. Started when Eisenhower will ill and had surgery while in the WH.

[FSogol]

7. Drug addition? STDs? Glued something embarassing to his genitals?

Need more?

[NoPasaran]

9. Close encounter of the gerbil kind?