Brain injury survivors create masks to raise awareness

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) - March 1 marks the start of Brain Injury Awareness month in Minnesota and you'll find a powerful reminder at the Capitol of the lives impacted by brain injuries.

All across the state brain injury survivors have been making masks. Each one tells a personal story with how they've been painted and decorated.

The art display is called "Unmasking Brain Injuries."

Patsy Murphy of Bloomington made her mask to show how she's still struggling to recover after falling from a golf cart nearly 26 years ago.

"I call it a silent epidemic because it is an unseen injury,” said Murphy. “You look at me and you think, she can do everything because she is just fine, because I'm not in a wheelchair and I have all my extremities and everything, but that's another way of being confused because my brain has been damaged." 

For the past year, the Minnesota Brain Injury Alliance has been collecting more than a thousand masks from survivors around the state.

Some of them will be on display at the Capitol for the rest of the week.