Chris Lieberman, born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma is one of Tulsa’s greatest assets and put his “Lieberfun” touch, through his company Amazing Events, LLC, on many of Tulsa’s award-winning events. Before Chris’ accident, he was the Creator, Founder, and Executive Director of the Williams Route 66 Marathon; the Center of the Universe Festival; and was the Entertainment Director for Tulsa Oktoberfest–creator of the infamous Euro Disco.

On March 8, 2016, Chris was working at the event warehouse when he fell from a ladder, approximately 6-10 feet high. He fell onto the concrete floor and suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury. That’s where our journey began.

With a lack of neurological hospitals and treatment centers in Oklahoma, Chris’ family was forced to raise funds to seek medical care out of state.

Chris received acute in-patient medical care from the best neurological facilities in the country, Sheppard Center in Atlanta, Georgia and TIRR Hermann Memorial in Houston, Texas. Chris was received from in-patient rehab at Pate Rehab in Texas, once he was discharged he began out-patient rehabilitation in Tulsa.

Chris was excited to get back to his former life. The first thing he wanted to do was to return to work and the events he created and loved so much, but first, he had to go through the rehabilitation process and relearn how to do everything from feeding himself, reading, writing, daily tasks and when goals were accomplished he moved onto his next goals of working on his mobility by learning to walk again. After working with every main neuro-therapy resource in the Tulsa area, we soon realized that Tulsa did not have the resources necessary to help him reach his goals. They were forced, once again to look outside of Tulsa for his therapy needs to meet his recovery goals.

In Dallas, they met with the owner, Kendell Bachik, of REACT Neuro Rehab was immediately impressed and knew that React was the facility to help him reach his goals to recover and regain hope for life again. The following week they started to raise funds again to help pay for him to go to React. (Chris had already reached his insurance and allowed 25 insurance visits for the year.)

Thanks to many generous donations from friends and the community, Chris has received his Activity-Based Therapy at React in Dallas every week since September of 2018 for 2-3 hours of therapy for 3 days each week. Chris has thrived from this specific type of therapy and has gone from being in a wheelchair to walking with a cane to now walking independently, as well as some function in his left hand.

We were finally feeling signs of recovery and hope and knowing that Tulsa does not have an Adaptive Fitness and Recovery Center similar to React to help people recover from Neurological injuries, such as Traumatic Brain Injuries, Strokes, Spinal Cord Injuries, multiple sclerosis or other neurological conditions, Chris and Kim wanted to change that and once again create something for the Tulsa Community.

If it wasn’t for the support and assistance, both emotionally and financially, from our friends and family, we would have not made it to where we are today. We found a significant lack of options in Tulsa for treatment and recovery. That is why we started the Brain Injury Recovery Foundation, Inc.

Chris and Kim, Ashton, and Aldyn (Chris’ daughters) have started the Brain Injury Recovery Foundation, Inc. which is a 501(c)(3) that will give life to an advocacy program based Neuro Rehab Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, DEFY Neuro Rehab. We want to honor those that helped us and help fill a gap in Tulsa. We don’t want other families to have to go through the same struggles that we did. We want to be able to help them with awareness, education, support, empathy, and encouragement while they support their loved ones.

HELP US CHANGE LIVES!

We want to thank everyone that has donated to Chris’ recovery by giving back to others with similar injuries.