[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12792]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         FINDING A CURE FOR ALS

  (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, upon retiring from baseball due to a 
debilitating disease known as ALS, Lou Gehrig said, ``I consider myself 
the luckiest man on the face of the Earth . . . I might have had a 
tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for.''
  Today this attitude is personified in Matthias Radits, the corporate 
chef of The Breakers resort, who was diagnosed with ALS last year. With 
The Breakers' kitchen serving as the classroom, Mr. Radits has 
established an apprenticeship for high school graduates interested in 
culinary arts.
  ALS is a fatal, neurodegenerative disease that attacks nerve cells of 
the brain and spinal cord. When cells die, voluntary muscle control and 
movement ceases, yet a patient's mind remains intact.
  The average life expectancy is 2 to 5 years. But with recent 
advancements, ALS patients are living longer and having more productive 
lives.
  I urge my colleagues to work hard towards additional funding for ALS 
so that more aggressive and productive research can be done and we can 
imagine a day when this disease disappears for all of the Matthias 
Raditses of the world.

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