U-S Senator Dick Durbin visited the Southern Illinois University’s School of Medicine in Springfield on Friday. He announced an increase in federal funding for medical research for this year.
Durbin says the government will pay $2 billion more to study and treat diseases. The Democrat held up a 3-D model of an infant heart with a birth defect as an example of how advances in medical research can help families. His late daughter, Christine, had the same heart defect as the 3D model when she was born.
“She was born 46 years ago. There was no surgical procedure that we could turn to. Now there are many.”
The funding will go to the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Defense and Veteran Affairs.
