Join us on September 14 at The Walkway Over the Hudson, Highland Side as we celebrate leadership and honor brain injury survivor’s whose stories of determination and perseverance have inspired us all.
March On for Brain Injury supports the vital programs and services that the Brain Injury Association of New York State provides to those impacted by brain injury across the state.
Meet the 2024 March On for Brain Injury Hudson Valley Honorees.
A New Yorker, who has lived on four continents, in six countries, and three different states, Caleb Michael-Camprone Brunick, a military and diplomatic child, grew up immersed in different cultures and languages. Learning from an early age that you must work hard to achieve what you want and to never give up, Caleb always chooses to push past his limit.
While in university, Caleb discovered his love for standup comedy. Through school and after graduation to his first job, Caleb performed standup any chance he got. In December 2021, Caleb was leaving a show when the vehicle he was traveling in was in an accident on an icy road. Caleb’s friend sadly succumbed to his injuries, and Caleb sustained multiple breaks and fractures, as well as a traumatic brain injury with full diagnosis of diffuse axonal injury grade 3. With physicians giving little hope given for survival, Caleb’s parents and sister knew they could not leave his side.
In February 2022, Caleb was internationally transported back to the US from Tartu, Estonia to Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital in Schenectady, where he stayed for the next two months. Day by day with the help of therapists, doctors and nurses’ things that were once said to be impossible became a living reality which Caleb’s surpassed. After being discharged from Sunny View Hospital, Caleb continued outpatient Physical and Occupational therapy for months. To this day still, he is continuing Speech Therapy.
Onto the next chapter of his life, Caleb deals with the lingering effects of his TBI and copes with the loss of everything he knew, friends, employment, education, comedy and the love of his life gone, but that did not stop him. He refuses to let the TBI be his defining factor and instead will define his TBI and will continue to be the voice for those who were unable to regain their own voice.
As the 2024 March On for Brain Injury Hudson Valley Honoree, Caleb is excited to share his story, while he raises funds for programs like the support groups that brought him to the Brain Injury Association of New York State, and continues to advocate for those that can’t advocate for themselves, while living the best life that he can.
The 2024 March On for Brain Injury Medical Honoree, Dr. Brian Im completed his physical medicine and rehabilitation residency at NYU School of Medicine/Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine and subsequently did a fellowship in brain injury rehabilitation medicine at UMDNJ/Johnson Rehabilitation Institute. Upon finishing his fellowship, Dr. Im returned to Bellevue Hospital specifically with an interest to improve the brain injury rehabilitation program for the underserved public city hospital population. During his five years at Bellevue, Dr. Im became the director of the brain injury rehabilitation program.
Currently, Dr. Im is director of brain injury rehabilitation at Rusk Rehabilitation where he continues to treat inpatients. He is also co-director of the TBI model systems project at Rusk Rehabilitation and Bellevue Hospital, co-director of the NYU Concussion Center, and the fellowship director for the NYU Rusk Rehabilitation brain injury medicine fellowship.
Incredibly supportive of the work of the Brain Injury Association of New York State and a member of the association’s board, Dr. Im works to help spread awareness and raise valuable funds to support the programs and services that BIANYS provides to the brain injury community, a community that he proudly supports.
University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) is the 2024 March On for Brain Injury Statewide Program Honoree. The Acute Inpatient Rehabilitation unit at Strong Memorial Hospital meets the complex needs of adult and pediatric patients recovering from traumatic brain injury. Led by board-certified and fellowship-trained physician with expertise in brain injury rehabilitation medicine, the multidisciplinary care team is comprised of rehabilitation nurses, physical and occupational therapists, speech and language pathologists, recreational therapists, care managers, dietitians, and psychologists. The focus is restoring independence by improving problems with cognition, balance, strength, motor control, vision, swallowing, and other deficits that adversely affect patients’ daily lives.
As western New York’s largest and the Rochester region’s only Level 1 trauma facility, Strong Memorial Hospital is a destination for patients from across upstate NY who require advanced levels of trauma care. The new 11 bed Acute Brain Injury Neuro-Rehabilitation Unit further strengthens UR Medicine’s comprehensive system of acute care and recovery for moderate to severe brain injury, which also includes the UR Medicine Comprehensive Stroke Center, the Mobile Stroke Unit, Neuromedicine ICU, and the Kessler Burn and Trauma Center. The new unit supplements the existing 20-bed Acute Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit at Strong Memorial Hospital, increasing total acute inpatient rehabilitation beds at the hospital to 31.
“The unit is physically designed to appropriately manage patients with cognitive and behavioral deficits and accounts for the clinical, physical, cognitive, communication, and nutritional conditions necessary to create an optimal environment for the brain to heal,” said Heather Ma, MD, a brain injury rehabilitation medicine specialist and assistant professor of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. Ma is division chief of UR Medicine’s Brain Injury Rehabilitation Medicine service line and is medical director and division chief of Acute Inpatient Rehabilitation Medicine. “The staff are uniquely qualified to guide recovery, help patients improve or maintain function, and improve overall health and quality of life after an acute brain injury.”
URMC is a longtime resource and supporter of the Brain Injury Association of New York State, URMC continues to push forward to support and help heal brain injury survivors. Their programs and services are making a tremendous impact.
Are YOU ready to March On for Brain Injury?
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