Genesis Health System and the Quad Cities River Bandits will honor Home Runs for Life recipient Lynn Kilburg of Eldridge during a ceremony on the field Friday, June 9, at Modern Woodmen Park, 209 S. Gaines St., Davenport.
Genesis and the Quad City River Bandits have partnered since 2016 to recognize the success of Genesis physical therapy and rehabilitation patients. Both teams will honor Mr. Kilburg, and a video about him will play on the screen. The game begins at 6:30 p.m., and the ceremony will be held at the end of the first inning.
Mr. Kilburg has spent the last year and a half trying to return to “normal” after contracting COVID-19 in November 2022. He spent 14 days on a ventilator in a medically induced coma, and his subsequent brain infection affected his speech and physical coordination, according to a news release.
“Think about going from a normal person to a 4- or 5-year-old,” Mr. Kilburg said in the release. “How would you feel? I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.”
After spending 77 days in the hospital, he started outpatient therapy in February 2022 at Genesis Physical and Speech Therapy at Valley Fair, Davenport.
“When I started here, I couldn’t walk, talk or think like normal, so I am just trying to get back to normal,” he said.
Genesis Physical Therapist Meagin Sichterman said Mr. Kilburg has made “significant progress” in the last 18 months.
“When I first met him, he was using a walker and his vitals were unstable. As a result, his endurance was low, so he couldn’t walk for more than a hundred feet before he tanked and needed a rest break,” she said in the release. “Now, he’s walking without a walker, he can walk multiple miles on the treadmill without stopping, his vitals are stable and he is doing higher level activities.”
Mr. Kilburg, a married father of three, has worked for the Iowa Department of Transportation DOT for 28 years, according to the release. A mechanic by trade, he is back to work doing mostly office work, but his goal is to “wrench on cars” again some day.
