At age 92 and still a member of Congress is amazing in itself and being bound to a wheel chair his last years. Being a senior today is indeed stressful and being a member of Congress, I would guess even more stressful. The other senator from West Virginia, Senator Rockefeller has also been very involved in healthcare reform 
with calling insurance companies to the carpet on their business practices.
The Ingenix Inquisition – Hearing Requested by Senator Rockefeller
You can read the entire article here at the link below which is a nice summary of the history of the senator in his years in Congress. BD
Robert Carlyle Byrd, the West Virginia Democrat who was often called this generation's conscience of the Senate for his devotion to the system of constitutional checks and balances and the prerogatives of power, died Monday. He was 92.
Byrd, who served longer than any member of Congress in U.S. history and cast more congressional votes than anyone since taking office in January 1959, died at about 3 a.m. at Inova Hospital in Fairfax, Va., a spokesman for the family said.He was admitted to a Washington-area hospital late last week suffering from what a spokesman said was believed to be heat exhaustion and severe dehydration as a result of the high temperatures in the capital.
In 2006 he was reelected to an unprecedented ninth term in the Senate, winning 64% of the vote.
In his later years, beset by health problems and mourning the loss of his wife Emma in March 2006 after 69 years of marriage, Byrd grew more publicly emotional. He cried on the Senate floor at the news that Kennedy had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. When Kennedy suffered a seizure in Obama's post-inauguration lunch on Capitol Hill, Byrd was so upset that he too was taken out of the event in a wheelchair.
And he all but monopolized a hearing on tainted pet food from China, rhapsodizing over his Shih Tzu. So poignant were his outbursts that Democratic colleagues discussed — but did not implement — a plan making Byrd the emeritus chairman and naming Washington's Patty Murray the "acting chairwoman."
Senator Byrd: Robert Byrd, West Virginia lawmaker, dies at 92 - latimes.com