New Jersey’s Traumatic Brain Injury Fund Losing Help from State
Michael Jankowsky of Toms River, New Jersey sustained a brain injury over 25 years ago when he was stabbed in the heart and his brain was deprived of oxygen. Today, Jankowsky uses a wheelchair, slurs his speech, and struggles to concentrate. Though times have been tough, according to his mother, he has made progress over the past few years thanks to New Jersey’s Traumatic Brain Injury Fund, which paid for speech therapy and other treatments not covered by insurance.
However, that could end soon. The Brain Injury Fund is going broke, and the state wants to limit whom it helps to people whose brain damage came from a direct blow to the head. If the recommendation is passed this spring, people who suffered strokes, tumors or other acquired brain injuries would be refused assistance, leaving 1,300 of the 2,200 people the fund has helped since 2004 — including Jankowsky — without help.
You can read more on Jankowsky’s story online here.