A new display from the Brain Injury Alliance of Montana is featured in the lobby of the Mineral Community Hospital in Superior. The display contains five across rows of different masks painted by brain injury survivors. Some are colorful and artistic, some are dark and grim, and all tell the story of a traumatic brain injury survivor.

A red mask painted with a black grimace for a mouth is the work of Jake K. from Bozeman, who was injured in December of 1982. My mask “is sad looking, like I felt,” he writes. “I was the foreman for volunteers installing a new roof on the fire house at Willow Creek, Montana. My ladder tipped over, I fell and hit my head on the cement. Three months later, a blood clot formed and had to be removed surgically.”

The traveling display is entitled, “Unmasking Brain Injury in Montana,” and holds 20 masks. It has been on display at the Southgate Mall in Missoula, the Missoula County Courthouse and will be at the State Capital rotunda in Helena this fall during the legislative session.

Staff members from the hospital, along with a few patients, gathered in the lobby while John Bigart III, Montana Brain Injury Alliance executive director, described the purpose of the display and talked about the Alliance. Sanders County Deputy Mike Sperry and Montana Highway Patrol Sgt. Shawn Smalley also attended the event.

“Most people don’t realize that Montana is second or third in the nation for traumatic brain injury related deaths, and a significant part of those deaths are traffic related,” Bigart said. “A lot of people don’t wear seatbelts, and also people recreate in the mountains, snowmobiling, riding ATVs. People in Montana work hard and they play hard, and unfortunately sometimes that results in serious injury, including traumatic brain injuries.”

Bigart also talked about the Interstate 90 corridor and how it is notorious for accidents, and the importance of wearing seatbelts.

“If you wear a seatbelt, there’s a good chance you will walk away from it,” said Smalley. “But if you don’t wear one, there’s a gigantic chance that you will be significantly injured.”

He said there was a crash on Friday, (June 15) and the woman was ejected from her vehicle and had to receive Life Flight from Haugan to Missoula. In addition to her injuries, there were also significant costs associated with the flight, plus hospital bills.

Smalley and Sperry also cited a wreck that happened over the Memorial Day weekend when a vehicle near Trout Creek was involved in a crash. There were two adults and five children; no one was wearing a seatbelt except one passenger, a teenager who walked away uninjured. The driver, a 71-year-old grandfather, died at the scene, the rest of the passengers were taken to the hospital with varying injuries.

The display at the hospital will be featured for about a month, and people who are interested in creating their own mask and telling their story are encouraged to do so by visiting their website at biamt.org.