UPDATED: Sen. Prague returns to Capitol following stroke

Hartford – State Sen. Edith Prague, D-Columbia, returned to the state Capitol today for the first time since her stroke on Christmas Day.

Prague, 86, looked and sounded much like her regular self as she joined a legislators’ news conference on home health care options for seniors.

“I’m standing before you today because I’m practically 100-percent recovered,” Prague said, standing before a lectern in the Legislative Office Building. “The only thing I can’t do yet is get clearance from my doctor to drive my own car.” 

The veteran legislator will be around for this year’s General Assembly session that begins Feb. 8 as “too many important things are happening, I’d like to be here.”

And Prague intends to be around for several more legislative sessions; she told a group of reporters she will run for reelection to the State Senate this fall.

Prague recalled how one of her daughters visited her on Christmas and noticed something wrong with the left side of her face. She sought medical assistance, and a doctor informed Prague that she had experienced “a very minor stroke.”

Prague said she stayed for a week at Windham Hospital in Willimantic, and then moved to a rehabilitation center for physical therapy. U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn, was among the many friends who called to check on her condition.

“I’m fine now, thank God,” Prague said. “And believe me, I don’t take that for granted. My husband died as the result of a stroke – it was devastating.”

Prague is a chairman of the legislature’s Aging and Labor & Public Employees committees and has represented the 19th Senate District since 1995.