The Nation - News from April 13, 1988

White House Press Secretary James S. Brady and his wife, Sarah, asked Congress to expand home health care and other services vital to head injury victims, describing their own plight since Brady was shot. “My name is Jim Brady. I am a seven-year survivor of a traumatic brain injury,” Brady said evenly as a hush fell over the packed Senate hearing room. “I know only too well the tragedy surrounding a head injury. I am pleased that you are taking a keen look at our problems.” Brady was shot during the 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan. He delivered his brief statement to the Senate Labor and Human Resources subcommittee on the handicapped from a wheelchair, with little expression in his face or voice. Mrs. Brady said her husband had received first-rate care. But the rude shock came when Brady was released from the hospital and there was no support network, she said.