Saving lives

Your Nov. 27 front-page article “Don’t let science go over cliff to balance budget, experts warn” makes crystal clear the far-reaching impact of pending cuts to research funding.

Advances in research lead to much more than fiscal gains for our country. They mean multitudes of lives saved in the medical arena. But scheduled cuts in research funding will put the brakes on that.

Personally, I’ve had four stents put in my coronary arteries as part of a heart catheterization procedure that never would have been possible without research that led to that technology. My triple-bypass operation again was the result of medical techniques perfected by NIH-funded research. In short, research has saved my life!

I’ll bet most people don’t even realize how profoundly their lives have been touched by a myriad of scientific advances, and if they did, they’d speak loudly to tell our Congress to reverse the planned reduction in research funding and keep us moving in a forward direction.

Frank Amend

Rocky Mount