As a member of the board for the Brain Injury Association of New York State, Kara Moran understands that unfortunately, the range of care after one is diagnosed with a brain injury can be limited.

"The brain is those most magical thing we have, but it can be awful at the same time," Moran said. "It's very variable. It's like a snowflake. No two brain injuries are alike."

Moran had her first brain injury as a teenager – a concussion playing softball. Years later, conditions at work in a Western New York school district led to a chemical attack on her brain.

"I recovered after about six months," she said. "I started feeling better. I started doing better. I had no therapies. no help. No MRIs. No CTs. Nothing for a long time, even after the injury. Like after two years I finally got a scan."

Like so many others dealing with mild to moderate injuries, there’s neither the structure nor backing from hospitals or the state for much needed long-term care, leaving many in logistic or mental horrors. And sometimes physical.

"It was so painful. I said to my husband, 'if I don't get better with pain, I can't be on this planet,' because it was so intense," said Moran.

She survived her first two brain injuries and a nasty bout with COVID-19 that set her progress back.

"I want to make a difference," she said. "I want people not to go through what I did. And it was awful."

A personal mission as part of the Brain Injury Association of New York State is that they’re looking for $1 million from the state budget to help set up a continuum of care.

"Those people that have severe injuries have the Medicaid waiver," she said. "They are funded to have case management, but myself and with mild to moderate [symptoms], you have no idea how hard it was just to live and try to coordinate your care with no one."

These are the first steps in a larger solution.

"We need like hubs, almost in each city, that are all trying to work together for people like me," added Moran. "And we also need case management. If we can get that, I don't know that would cost more. But this is a good start."

With what she knows from personal experience and doctors know from three years of a pandemic.

"There's a tsunami of people with long COVID and its brain injury, brain trauma,” she said. “We're going to need as much help as we can get."