De Caro & Kaplen LLP Announce 7th Annual Traumatic Brain Injury Scholarship Winner

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, USA, March 20, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- De Caro & Kaplen, LLP is proud to have presented the seventh annual Traumatic Brain Injury Scholarship to Lindsay Bires, a transfer student at the University of Massachusetts Boston Nursing Program.

The annual award — a $1,000 scholarship for an individual who has sustained a traumatic or acquired brain injury and is pursuing a higher education — was presented during Brain Injury Awareness Month, a public awareness campaign led by the Brain Injury Association of America.

In announcing the winner, partner Michael V. Kaplen, a three-term president of the Brain Injury Association of New York State, and professorial lecturer at law, teaching a course in brain injury law at the George Washington University Law School, said, “Traumatic brain injury can happen to anyone, at any place, at any time. A TBI is a life-altering event, and with over 5.3 million Americans living with the long-term consequences of brain injury, spreading awareness is critical to our nation's health. Our firm continues to offer an annual scholarship to help an individual who has experienced a brain injury pursue their dream of higher education.”

In 2012, Lindsay Bires, was working as a nurse at Palmetto Richland Heart Hospital in Columbia, South Carolina when she was the victim of a ‘hit and run’ outside the hospital. A car swerved onto the sidewalk she was standing on, causing life-threatening injuries. Bires explains how this one moment changed her life forever, and she has had to relearn basic life skills many of us take for granted, and over a decade since her injury, she finally hopes to be able to resume her career:

“I did very well in college and had always dreamed of being a nurse. After only working 5 months my life was forever changed because of someone else's bad decision. I have spent the last 10 years relearning to live on my own, drive and do the things we all take for granted. I have volunteered for MADD to speak to DUI offenders in hopes of preventing some people from doing this to someone else's life. I have taken courses and am now accepted into the University of Mass. Boston's nursing program. This scholarship will help me to get back to the career I love. I feel my nursing and now patient background will give hope to those who are sick or injured. My story shows there is always hope no matter how bad things become.”

Shana De Caro, a partner in the firm, who served two terms as Chairwoman of the Brain Injury Association of America, explains why they chose Bires as the most recent winner of their scholarship, “Brain injury changes lives in an instant. If Miss Bires had not been standing on that sidewalk, on that night, she would now be over 10 years into her career. Instead she has spent those years rebuilding her life. With such a devastating setback, many individuals might have given up hope. Miss Bires did not. We found her bravery, and her determination not to be defined by her brain injury truly inspiring.”

The Traumatic Brain Injury Scholarship is an annual award for students who have sustained a brain injury. Applications for the next award, to be distributed in March 2025, can now be submitted on the firm’s website at https://brainlaw.com/traumatic-brain-injury-scholarship-fund/.

Michael V. Kaplen
De Caro & Kaplen, LLP
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