We need to unite to protect the programs and services for survivors of traumatic brain injury.

Together, we can present a collective voice to our senators about supporting Senate Bill 2898, the Dennis John Benigno Traumatic Brain Injury Reauthorization Act of 2025, without broadening the definition of traumatic brain injury.

We need to send a message. Efforts to renew this legislation must be singularly directed to serving the needs of those with traumatic brain injury.

I am a 44-year pediatric survivor of a severe traumatic brain injury—or more precisely, a severe cerebral contusion—who received rehabilitation care and went on to complete his education over a 10-year period. I went on to establish a 30-year career as a social worker and research scientist, which included 16 years working for the California Department of Public Health in its maternal and child health division.

I am concerned that efforts to broaden this definition to include “survivors of anoxia, tumors, infections, and other acquired causes”, as outlined in a press release by the Brain Injury Association of America dated September 25, 2025, will weaken the original focus of the Traumatic Brain Injury Act of 1996.

Traumatic brain injury will no longer be the sole focus for improving access to service delivery, providing protection-advocacy services to survivors, or carrying out projects to reduce the incidence of this condition.

Future efforts to measure the rate of new cases will artificially increase the number of survivors by including persons who were previously excluded from such a count. This could seriously undermine national efforts to measure the success or failure in preventing brain injuries. This includes efforts to reduce the hundreds of thousands of children and adolescents who sustain sports- and recreation-related traumatic brain injuries each year.

Future efforts to improve access to care could be weakened to the point that it may have nothing to do with addressing the actual problems facing survivors of traumatic brain injury, such as those with low incomes or without health insurance who are less likely to receive appropriate care, less likely to receive rehabilitation services, and more likely to die in the hospital.

We cannot afford to have one definition under the proposed reauthorization and another definition under other organizational structures. We cannot have inter-agency variability in who has—or does not have—a traumatic brain injury. Changing the definition would be a major departure from more established descriptions. For instance:

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke states: “A traumatic brain injury…refers to a brain injury that is caused by an outside force. A forceful bump, blow, or jolt to the head or body can cause it…”

American Association of Neurological Surgeons states: “A traumatic brain injury…is defined as…a blow or jolt to the head or a penetrating head injury that disrupts the normal function of the brain.”

Brain Injury Association of America states: “A traumatic brain injury…is defined as an alteration in brain function or other evidence of brain pathology caused by an external force…”

Although some might claim that I have built a full and successful life after traumatic brain injury, I hope that you will help me support current and future survivors by signing this petition and encouraging the passage of Senate Bill 2898 without broadening the definition of traumatic brain injury.

You can get a glimpse into me as a person—my thoughts and dreams—through some of my published essays about traumatic brain injury listed at the end of this petition.

Thank you for your consideration.

Respectfully Submitted,

BRASON LEE, M.S.W., M.S.

REFLECTIONS: DEMYSTIFYING HOPE FOR CHILDREN WITH TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY (2025) published by the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at https://www.jaacap.org/article/S0890-8567(25)00250-3/pdf

RECOVERY FROM TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY (2025) published in Psychiatric Services, a journal of the American Psychiatric Association at https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ps.20250442

REFLECTIONS OF A PEDIATRIC SURVIVOR OF TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY: 42 YEARS LATER (2023) published by the Journal of Adolescent Health at https://www.jahonline.org/action/showPdf?pii=S1054-139X%2822%2901044-8