[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 103 (Thursday, September 7, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H7283-H7284]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       EYE DEGENERATIVE DISEASES

  (Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, Isaac, Daria, and Ilana Lidsky, young 
constituents from my congressional district, are three of the 
approximately 6 million people who have retinal degenerative diseases. 
Along with their parents, Betti and Carlos, the Lidsky family works 
tirelessly to raise research funds for eye degenerative diseases. This 
Saturday, the Lidskys will hold their annual dinner which has helped 
make possible unprecedented medical advances.
  In a groundbreaking study, supported by the Foundation Fighting 
Blindness,

[[Page H7284]]

scientists amazingly restored vision in a mouse using oral doses of a 
chemical compound derived from vitamin A. This miracle offers evidence 
that researchers will soon be able to develop similar cures for 
patients with retinitis pigmentosa, macular degeneration, and other 
retinal degenerative diseases which may lead to blindness.
  Now more than ever, in an effort to make these treatments available, 
we need to support funding for the National Eye Institute so that our 
Nation's researchers will have the resources needed to make sight-
debilitating diseases extinct.
  Mr. Speaker, this Sunday, CBS's ``60 Minutes'' will highlight the 
Lidskys' uplifting story, and I urge my colleagues to tune in and learn 
what each of us can do in order to help realize a cure soon.

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