[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 17 (Monday, January 28, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S697]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                      REMEMBERING DR. LOUIS BALART

 Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. President, today I want to speak as a Senator 
and a physician. Many know that I am a doctor, but specifically I am a 
hepatologist. I studied and treated those with liver disease. One of my 
colleagues, Dr. Louis Balart, just passed away; a friend who treated 
many patients with liver disease and made an incredible impact upon the 
lives of those whom he treated in the State of Louisiana and indeed 
across the Nation. Dr. Balart has a remarkable story. His family came 
to the United States from Cuba when he was a child. His father escaped 
Cuba after his family was sent ahead to the States by drinking blood 
that he had drained from his own body. He went to the Cuban captors and 
said, ``I'm bleeding internally, I need to go to Miami to get 
treated.'' As a doctor himself, he knew that this would happen. With 
this remarkable story, he was able to rejoin his family that had moved 
to the United States, fleeing Castro's Cuba. As is the case of many 
such stories, the family succeeded tremendously, Louis Balart being 
among them. I mentioned before that he was an influential physician, 
but he was also a teacher with LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans 
and Tulane School of Medicine. He also headed the liver transplant unit 
at the Tulane Medical Center. He passed his gifts down and now his son, 
Carter Balart, is a gastroenterologist in Baton Rouge, whom I have had 
the pleasure of working on patients with. Today I honor Dr. Louis 
Balart, a father, husband, and physician who contributed greatly to his 
adopted country, the United States of America. He left it richer 
because of his presence.

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