HARRISBURG — Victor Stevens remembers his life before the motorcycle accident nearly 19 years ago that crushed his skull, permanently injured his brain and changed his life.

Victor’s long-term memory was not affected. But — dozens of surgeries later — the 39-year-old Slippery Rock man still suffers physical and memory challenges debilitating enough to keep him from ever holding a job or living independently.

The recovery process is both frustrating and sometimes depressing, but Victor and his mother, 64-year-old Ellen Stevens of Slippery Rock, want people to know there is help out there.

That’s why she and Victor will be among speakers at the Capitol Rotunda in Harrisburg on Tuesday supporting proposed increases in funding in the state’s 2014-15 General Fund budget to assist people like Victor who have traumatic brain injuries (TBI).

Also speaking will be representatives of Pennsylvania Brain Injury Coalition and a bipartisan group of House and Senate members, including Rep. Dick Stevenson, R-8th, who will be recognized for co-founding the House Brain Injury Caucus.

Stevenson said only in about the past seven years has awareness of TBI been raised, leading to additional resources.

“Our effort is one small part of a much greater effort,” Stevenson said.

The Legislature reconvenes this week to work on finalizing a state budget, which must be approved before the fiscal year ends June 30.

“We are very thankful. I want to thank them for all the help they’re providing now and in the future for many more years to come,” Victor said of the recent shift favoring funding programs that help people with TBI. “There are people with disabilities who need help, just like I need help.”

The new funding has opened up programming for TMI survivors, and Ellen Stevens said part of her trip is also to draw attention to a phone number people can call to find help: the Brain Injury Association of Pennsylvania resource line: 866-635-7097.

Ellen Stevens said it would have improved her efforts to help her son tremendously had she been aware of the options when the accident occurred. Instead, it took years to learn about the programs. And then even more years to work to the top of long waiting lists.

Victor was just 20 on the day of his accident: Oct. 23, 1995. He recently had earned his high school GED and bought the motorcycle only a month earlier.

Ellen said “we’ll never really know what happened.”

Accident reconstruction experts think Victor might have been speeding on the dirt road, Hilltop Acres, near the family home.

It appears he lost control of the bike and tried to jump off. The bike continued moving forward, actually climbed a utility pole, then flipped back on top of Victor.

When a neighbor found him, his skull had been crushed on the left side and his left hand had been burnt to the bone because the exhaust had laid on it.

Victor was flown by medical helicopter to a Pittsburgh hospital and remained in a coma for about two dozen days.

In the first five years after the accident alone, Victor had 15 surgeries — on his hand, his eye socket, his frontal lobe.

Just making it through the procedures was overwhelming for Ellen, a widow and mother to two other children.

But back then, it was fairly standard to send TBI survivors out the hospital door with nothing more than a list of appointments and a wish of good luck.

Ellen said it took years for her to find state programs to help her son. And then, the programs had waiting lists three years long.

Today, there is a metal plate where Victor’s skull once was. He lives with his mother in Slippery Rock, and he will always need supervision. Although he was hired for a few jobs through state programs, he was unable to keep them.

“His issues are social behaviors and decision making and short-term memory,” Ellen said.

Like many TBI survivors, Victor has trouble recalling events only a minute or two earlier. But he still recalls things that happened years ago.

“They remember what life was like before and they know what they are missing,” Ellen said. “That can cause a lot of depression.”

Still, Ellen said, Victor does well. He’s mobile and can be chatty.

“As tragic as this whole thing was there were many blessings,” Ellen said.