Islamic Jihad

Floor Speech

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I want to thank the gentlewoman from Minnesota for yielding. I know she has an important message to bring tonight, and I appreciate her sharing a little of her time with me.

Mr. Speaker, at a recent event, I had the privilege of learning more about a remarkable organization in Winston-Salem, North Carolina--the Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. The institute was established due to the leadership and generous financial support of Richard and Judy Childress, who saw that, while trauma was taking the lives of thousands of children every year, pediatric trauma was not a focus of medical research.

In 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control, pediatric trauma took the lives of 9,523 children, making it the largest cause of childhood death by a significant margin. As a comparison, cancer, heart disease, and birth defects combined take the lives of about 3,300 children every year. Tragically, 3,300 is a very similar number of children who were killed in 2010 due to traumatic injury from child abuse. An additional 6,190 children died that year from unintentional traumatic injuries. A full 52 percent of those injuries were caused by vehicle accidents, followed by drowning, poisoning, fire, guns, and falls. In addition to the nearly 10,000 fatalities, another 175,000 children were hospitalized due to injuries.

Dr. C. Everett Koop, who served as U.S. Surgeon General under President Reagan, once said: ``If a disease were killing our children in the proportions that injuries are, people would be outraged and demand that this killer be stopped.''

Despite trauma being the overwhelming cause of childhood death, the Federal Government spends only about 1 cent on pediatric trauma research for every dollar spent to study pediatric cancer.

The Childress Institute has been working to pick up where Federal dollars have dropped off. The institute uses its resources for research, education, and awareness about pediatric trauma and to improve the treatment for critically injured children in the U.S.

Mr. Speaker, Richard Childress is a lifelong resident of the Winston-Salem area, and is a NASCAR pioneer. Richard and his wife, Judy, are civic and philanthropic leaders in the community. Through their determination to fight the number one cause of pediatric death, children worldwide are benefiting from the generosity that those of us in North Carolina have long witnessed.

The remarkable people of the Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma work tirelessly to discover and share the best ways to prevent injuries and treat severely injured children, with the ultimate goal of ensuring that all ``injured kids get the best care when they need it the most.''

Today, I thank Richard and Judy Childress for their foresight and generosity, and I thank the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem for its expertise and dedication to this mission.

Finally, I want to recognize the dedicated men and women of the Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma for working every day to keep our children safe and to help them recover when they get hurt.

Again, Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman from Minnesota for so graciously yielding to me this evening.

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