Supporting the Goals and Ideals of a Day of Hearts, Congenital Heart Defect Day

SUPPORTING THE GOALS AND IDEALS OF A DAY OF HEARTS, CONGENITAL HEART DEFECT DAY -- (House of Representatives - February 14, 2006)

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the resolution to recognize the goals and ideas of a Day of Hearts, and I commend the gentleman from Georgia for making use of Valentine's Day as a way of highlighting and bringing awareness to one of our major health problems and health issues.

Every year, eight out of every 1,000 children are born with some form of congenital heart defect, or CHD. CHDs are the number one killer of infants in the United States, and while treatment is available for many of these defects, a number of them are not treatable. Sadly, too, many families lack the resources necessary to obtain proper treatment for even the most common and easily treatable defects.

Because CHDs are long-term or often lifelong afflictions, the life of a child who survives a CHD is made more difficult by restricted behavior and the laborious effort needed to carry out the daily tasks of life.

A Day of Hearts is an international effort to raise awareness of this all-too-common problem. CHD lacks the visibility of some of the diseases we all know well, yet the effects are no less tragic. Much progress needs to be made in fighting the disease and in finding and funding facilities that are dedicated to cutting-edge research related to all aspects of CHDs, especially factors that contribute to their occurrence.

In addition, developing countries are far behind the developing world in treating CHDs. Defects that are easily treatable here in the United States can be killers in those countries, and our sense of humanity can no longer tolerate easily preventible deaths from CHDs.

Mr. Speaker, February 14 is a day that many people around the world associate with love and companionship, and the enduring symbol of Valentine's Day is the heart. I can think of no day more appropriately tailored towards raising the public's awareness of CHDs than Valentine's Day. Therefore, I join in support of this important resolution and call upon all of my colleagues to support this effort so that hopefully we will generate the kind of awareness and the kind of resources that are necessary to fight this tragic and debilitating illness.

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