Having a wife who suffered a brain injury, Alan Carter knows how this trauma affects entire families.

Being the only South Georgia representative on the state’s Brain & Spinal Injury Trust Fund Commission, Carter also knows that few families south of Macon are seeking available help to deal with brain and spinal injuries.

“Money and services are available to meet the needs of the person who has survived a brain injury and to help families cope,” Carter says. “The number of people with brain injuries in South Georgia is astronomical, but very few are applying for help with the trust fund. I want them to know these services are available.”

Alan Carter’s experience with brain injury began in 1989 when a head-on car crash left his wife Mary in a coma for 30 days.

Carter spent his days and nights in her hospital room. He even slept under Mary’s bed so he could be near his wife while staying out of the way of the nurses treating her.

He recalls going home one afternoon. Mary remained in a coma. She had been in the hospital for two weeks. Alan found a hospital bill for thousands of dollars in his mailbox.

Two weeks. No idea then when Mary might come out of her coma. Thousands and thousands of dollars.   

Alan Carter felt overwhelmed. For a moment … He put the bill aside. The bill could wait. Mary needed his attention. She was his priority. He focused on her.

Mary survived. She came out of the coma. Alan and Mary still live with echoes from the wreck, from her injury. Piece by piece, dollar by dollar, the Carters paid those hospital bills.

But he knows those lonely moments. He’s lived those hard choices. He’s seen what brain injuries do to a loved one and what they can do to families.

“A brain injury is a lifelong thing,” he says. “It changes the person you knew. Some families don’t survive a brain injury.”

Carter witnessed some of this firsthand in the 1990s. In the early years after Mary’s accident, Carter developed a brain-injury support group. As time passed, the South Georgia support group grew to include approximately 300 people. Carter’s work with the support group led to his appointment to the state commission.

State Rep. Amy Carter, D-Lowndes, recommended him for the state Brain & Spinal Injury Trust Fund Commission. Alan Carter became the commission’s only South Georgia representative. He’s found allies in Rep. Carter and state Sen. Tim Golden. Alan Carter has been working to have another South Georgian serve on the commission.

Primarily, he wants to increase awareness of the fund’s availability to South Georgians.

In 1998, Georgia voters approved by 73 percent a state constitutional amendment creating a trust fund for brain and spinal injuries, paid through a surcharge on drunk-driving fines.

The trust fund provides services and equipment not covered by private insurance, Medicaid or Medicare.

“It was meant to fill the gaps in the system where there was no one else providing resources,” according to the commission.

Georgia residents with an eligible brain or spinal injury may apply for items or services related to the injury, but approval is not automatic.

In the past, however, a diverse number of services and needs have been approved, such as walkers; corrective shoes; various therapies: swimming, physical, neuromuscular, behavioral, family, life-skills, psychosocial, social skills; academic tutoring; adaptive computers; cognitive rehab; reading and comprehension programs; visual aids; voice-recognition software; zoom-text software; adult-care services; attendant care; bathroom modifications; diapers; wheelchair lift for van; hand-control system for vehicle; portable ramp; vehicle modifications …

The list can include anything a person or family may need related to a brain or spinal injury, Carter says.

While brain and spinal injuries can change lives forever, the trust fund can help change how people live those lives.

More information on the Brain & Spinal Injury Trust Fund Commission, visit www.bsitf.state.ga.us; or call (888) 233-5760. Or contact commission member Alan Carter, (229) 671-4977; or e-mail alanbcarter@bellsouth.net