Brain Injury Awareness
To The Editor:
March is Brain Injury Awareness Month. Since 1997, I’ve tackled the ongoing daily ups and downs of my own wholly life-altering traumatic brain injury, caused by Con Edison’s now so-called stray voltage.
Much of the media’s limited focus when the cover the more sensational incidents emphasize remarkable recoveries, exceptional care and vast support. The typical brain injury story, actually, is usually a very complex, erratic, gritty and lasting one — with no less inspiring or heroic elements than the media models. Each one is also replete with a dire need for better understanding, support, respect and covered or affordable services and therapies.
Many of the injury’s symptoms are often recognized only by its survivors or the most sensitive care providers — who themselves are likely to be baffled by the overwhelming and even contradictory array of systemic challenges. Professionals and the public at large need to more carefully educate themselves about these injuries, so as to improve prevention and care for this devastating, yet often preventable, menace that, statistics show, hurts more lives than any other health threat, and for which everyone is at risk. Improved awareness and care may begin by obtaining information from organizations like the Brain Injury Association of America, and by encouraging more in-depth representation in the media.
Phil Vanaria
