Trader Joe’s Brain Injury Survivor Seeking Immediate Financial Relief
I’m new to crowdsourcing, and this feels incredibly vulnerable to share. But I’m out of options and trying to stay afloat.
In 2019, I suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) from a falling steel warehouse door while on the job at Trader Joe’s. The warehouse door hit me in the neck and skull. I spent two years in a legal battle that ended in a settlement. After refusing a full NDA, I own my story and I’m empowered to speak publicly.
Since 2019, life has been a fight for stability. The injury changed everything: my health, my capacity to work, my housing, and how often I see my son, who no longer lives with me.
Right now, I’m facing immediate eviction. I lose my housing this next Thursday morning — six days from now. I’ve made it this far without asking the public for help.
But today, I’m in a five-figure hole, plus additional payments including medical bills, collection payments, credit card interest.
Most importantly, funds to stay in my child’s life on court visitations after losing daily custody due to the immediate cognitive changes and revolving door hospitalizations since the injury.
Right now, I have no other safety net.
At the worst, I lived in a tent in the desert, surviving in a rental car paid for on credit I didn’t have, while doing “van life” and trying to make a social media career out of desperation.
My son, thankfully, has remained safe and cared for in loving homes with access to great schools — something I’m endlessly grateful for. But the greatest cost of my injury was missing out on the rest of his childhood while paying for extremely expensive out-of-state I have 6 days to avoid homelessness — TBI survivor, single parent, startup cofounder.
Hi Reddit — I’m new to crowdsourcing, and this feels incredibly vulnerable to share. But I’m out of options and trying to stay afloat.
In 2019, I suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) from a missing warehouse door safety latch while on the job at Trader Joe’s. The warehouse door hit me in the neck and skull. I spent two years in a legal battle that ended in a settlement. Without a full NDA, I’m able to speak publicly.
Since then, life has been a fight for stability. The injury changed everything: my health, my capacity to work, my housing, and how I parent my son.
Right now, I’m facing immediate eviction. I lose my housing this next Thursday morning — six days from now. I’ve made it this far without asking the public for help.
But today, I’m in a $17,000 hole, plus additional payments including medical bills, collection payments, credit card interest, and the funds to stay in my child’s life on court visitations after losing daily custody due to cognitive changes. I have no other safety net.
At my worst, I lived in a tent in the desert, surviving on credit, while doing “van life” out of desperation.
My son, thankfully, has remained safe and cared for in loving homes with access to great schools — something I’m endlessly grateful for. But the greatest cost of my injury was missing out on his childhood. There’s no amount of money that can fix that.
I don’t naturally identify as someone who asks for help. I stayed in denial about my disability for a long time, trying to tough it out.
But this is a breaking point: credit maxed, five figure loans tapped, and not enough income to cover groceries or weekly rent ($355/wk rent in an extended stay hotel in an extremely dangerous neighborhood in Albuquerque’s Warzone).
In the aftermath of my injury, I sustained myself for nearly three years on full academic scholarships.
With my education, I co-founded a neuroscience startup for brain injuries and conditions. We created a wearable early intervention biomed device with a corresponding patient-provider portal.
But the company is still pre-funding. We’re putting in the hours ourselves (as a company of two founders). We pitch to investors in the fall. My cofounder has already lent and gifted me significant financial relief to help get me through the time we’re working on this project.
I’m also applying for bridge jobs — anything from data entry to virtual admin — but it’s not coming together fast enough. I have special needs after my accident that make working from home necessary at this point in recovery.
I’m trying to hold onto my housing, find a bridge position until we launch, get out of debt, and make it to the other side of this. I know many people here understand what it’s like to live with disability, chronic illness, or neurodivergence in a system that doesn’t make space for it. If that’s you: I see you, and I’m with you.
(Asking family for help isn’t a viable option. I was raised in an intensely abusive, violent home tied up in substance abuse and white-collar crime. I returned for a year, hoping for healing — and was deeply retraumatized instead.)
So here I am. Asking strangers for help, because this community might understand what it’s like to be fighting for a second chance.
If you’re able to contribute or share my campaign, I’m deeply grateful. Every donation or boost helps me stay housed and regain stability.
If you’d rather use Venmo or Apple Pay, feel free to message me.
Thank you for reading. Truly. I can’t wait to pay this forward — both personally and through the work I’m doing in advancing early preventative diagnostics for brain health.
I don’t naturally identify as someone who asks for help. I stayed in denial about my disability for a long time, trying to tough it out.
But this is a breaking point: credit maxed, five figure loans tapped, and not enough income to cover groceries or weekly rent ($355/wk rent in an extended stay hotel in an extremely dangerous neighborhood in Albuquerque’s Warzone).
In the aftermath of my injury, I sustained myself for nearly three years on full academic scholarships.
With my education, I co-founded a neuroscience startup for brain injuries and conditions. We created a wearable early intervention biomed device with a corresponding patient-provider portal.
But the company is still pre-funding. We’re putting in the hours ourselves (as a company of two founders). We pitch to investors in the fall. My cofounder has already lent and gifted me significant financial relief to help get me through the time we’re working on this project.
I’m also applying for bridge jobs — anything from data entry to virtual admin — but it’s not coming together fast enough. I have special needs after my accident that make working from home necessary at this point in recovery.
I’m trying to hold onto my housing, find a bridge position until we launch, get out of debt, and make it to the other side of this. I know many people here understand what it’s like to live with disability, chronic illness, or neurodivergence in a system that doesn’t make space for it. If that’s you: I see you, and I’m with you.
(Asking family for help isn’t a viable option. I was raised in an intensely abusive, violent home tied up in substance abuse and white-collar crime. I returned for a year, hoping for healing — and was deeply retraumatized instead.)
So here I am. Asking strangers for help, because this community might understand what it’s like to be fighting for a second chance.
If you’re able to contribute or share my campaign, I’m deeply grateful. Every donation or boost helps me stay housed and regain stability.
If you’d rather use Venmo or Apple Pay, feel free to message me.
Thank you for reading. Truly. I can’t wait to pay this forward — both personally and through the work I’m doing in advancing early preventative diagnostics for brain health.
