[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 15]
[House]
[Pages 20105-20106]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            PRAISING THE EFFORTS OF TEXAS DOCTORS AND NURSES

  (Mr. BURGESS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, over the past couple of weeks, we have 
certainly seen our share of bad news.
  One little bit of good news, though, has come out of the State of 
Texas. Texans, always known for their friendliness, have opened their 
arms and their hearts to their neighbors to the east.
  Madam Speaker, this hurricane was unlike any of us have ever seen 
before and I pray that none of us will ever see again: 90,000 square 
miles of devastation along the Gulf Coast, over 1 million people 
displaced from their homes. Now, a quarter of that population, 250,000, 
are in the State of Texas.
  Madam Speaker, I am proud of Texas, and I am especially proud of 
Texas doctors and Texas medicine. Spending time in the shelters in my 
district last week, I was so impressed with the doctors and the nurses 
who are volunteering, giving of themselves, to attend to those who are 
less fortunate. Texas doctors and nurses indeed stepped up to the 
challenge, whether it was the residents of John Peter Smith Hospital,

[[Page 20106]]

the faculty at the University of North Texas at Fort Worth, or in the 
city of Dallas, itself, where they received 17,000 individuals in the 
space of one Saturday afternoon.
  Many of these were people who suffered from chronic illnesses such as 
diabetes and hypertension, who had been off their meds for several 
days; but of that 17,000, only 200 required hospitalization, truly a 
remarkable feat.

                          ____________________