Inspired by Brain Injury Advocacy

Attending the National Brain Injury Conference and Awareness Day sparked TBI survivor Evan Folan’s support for BIAA’s advocacy work.

On July 23, 2019, Evan Folan was having a great day. A sales representative who had recently moved to Los Angeles following a career change, Evan had just closed a large, six-figure deal. He was heading to his next appointment when a semi-truck traveling in the opposite direction lost one of its wheels. The wheel – which weighs about as much as a refrigerator, Evan explains – came through his windshield and hit him in the head, fracturing his skull, breaking his neck in two places, and causing a brain bleed. The injury triggered a seizure, causing Evan to hit the accelerator in his car. In mere moments, Evan traveled across the freeway, hit another car, and careened back across the freeway before hitting the center divider.

“The only reason I’m still here is that there was an EMT in an empty ambulance a couple of cars behind me,” Evan says. He also happened to be near a freeway exit for one of the best trauma centers in Los Angeles County.

The EMT took Evan to the hospital, where he was in a coma for two days. When he woke up, he says, the real journey began.

“Life with a brain injury, it’s like Sisyphus. You think you’re at the top of the hill, but then you have a flare-up and regress,” he says, adding that he has been to 19 different rehabilitation facilities in the more than six years since his brain injury.

Today, Evan continues to deal with the effects of his brain injury. “I deal with chronic pain from the minute I wake up until the minute I go to bed. I have horrendous headaches and wake up constantly through the night to change out ice packs,” he explains. He also struggles with short-term memory, and has been treated for seizures – although, he notes, he has been seizure-free for a year.

In many ways, Evan’s brain injury is an invisible illness. His chronic pain and short-term memory problems aren’t something that anyone can see, so if he has to cancel on friends at the last minute due to pain or forgets about an appointment, “people think I’m a flake,” he says.

“Our brain injuries are daily hurdles for survivors. It’s not like you wake up and you go back to normal. Getting out of bed can be a huge win for someone with brain injury. Some of us can’t do that. Every day is a battle for survivors,” he says.

The brain injury journey is one of resilience, not just recovery, he says. “When you think of recovery, you break your arm, get a cast, get your cast off, maybe go to PT, and then your arm is back to normal. You get back to the state where you once were,” he explains. Resiliency, however, requires continuous work. “You’re facing adversity but showing up every day to better yourself.”

Evan’s resilience and grit shine through with his clothing brand, Toro & Tides, which he launched to bring awareness to the invisible nature of brain injury.

As a business owner whose brand is built on spreading brain injury awareness, Evan started researching organizations with a similar goal of supporting brain injury survivors. That research led him to the Brain Injury Association of America.

He joined BIAA at the National Brain Injury Conference and Awareness Day in March – an event Evan says inspired him to want to continue supporting the organization after experiencing the community aspect and the advocacy efforts that take place there.

Those advocacy efforts – the national reach, the drive to make changes on a national level, the unified approach – are something that Evan says sets the organization apart. “The biggest changes we’ll see are on that government level,” he says. “It’s not, ‘Oh, I’m in Vermont, so I’m working with legislators there.’ There’s such a huge reach nationwide. You’re going into the offices of everyone represented at Congress.”

The National Brain Injury Conference and Awareness Day will be an annual trip for Toro & Tides, Evan says. “That was the catalyst for wanting to continue working with BIAA and promote their work,” he says. “It’s why I promote the organization to everyone I come across with brain injury.”

Beyond witnessing BIAA’s advocacy efforts, Evan says seeing members of the brain injury community come together from all across the country also had an impact on him. “You might think, I’m one person, I’m not going to make a difference – you are,” he says.

If you’d like to get involved with brain injury advocacy efforts, check out BIAA’s advocacy resources or sign up to receive updates on our advocacy work and Action Alerts.