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My name is Matt Kopydlowski and I got a traumatic brain injury (TBI) knocking on doors for the Democratic Party. Seven years ago, I was knocked unconscious when I went through stairs when a board collapsed while I was canvassing for the Montana Democratic Party on Paul Tuss's campaign for Jon Tester's state senate seat.
Before the injury, I worked on Democratic campaigns across Idaho and Montana. I was a national delegate for Barack Obama and a state delegate for Bernie Sanders. I volunteered on ballot initiatives for Reclaim Idaho. I was halfway through a Master's in Public Administration at Boise State. I was building a life in public service.
I wanted to get married. I wanted to have kids. I wanted to own a house, build a career, plan for retirement. My TBI has taken that all from me. I've watched in pain for seven years as everyone else moved on with their lives while I lived day to day unable to organize simple functions.
The cruel thing about a brain injury to the frontal cortex is that you don't have a brain to manage the injury.
WHAT I'VE DONE ON MY OWN
For six years, I followed the best doctors' advice. Unfortunately, no one referred me to a center that specialized in TBI recovery familiar with hyperbaric therapy. Everyone underestimated the injury — doctors, my lawyer, family, friends. At my worst, I was entertaining suicidal thoughts. I wasn't getting the help I needed, and to say it mildly, no one around me understood the injury. But I survived, and I kept looking for answers.
I've been working hard to rehab my brain: Zone 2 cardio, lifting weights, low-inflammation diet, learning Spanish, meditation — you name it. It's been hard work rebuilding a brain with chronic inflammation and brain fog that is quite literally tearing the house down at the cellular level while you're trying to build it back up. That's the science of it.
Ten months ago I was fired from a graveyard position at a hotel. I was so excited for that job. As part of the brain injury, I underexplained my screen sensitivity. I was fired after a month because I couldn't do even an hour of computer work. The screen would inflame my head and send me into massive brain fog. I endured cytokine brain fog over several months working on my resume and applying to jobs. I went to the library every day to try to overcome the distractions.
After getting fired, I used AI to scan thousands of peer-reviewed journals and identify the inflammatory pathways destroying my brain. I built a supplement protocol that finally started reducing the brain fog. For the first time since the injury, my brain responded. The fog dropped a couple levels. This costs almost $200 a month. The inflammation is still there for some things — I still get fog from visually demanding tasks like driving, using a computer, or watching TV. The vision part of my brain was injured the most; it gets overtaxed and that feeds the fog.
In October, my mom — who is disabled — broke her hip. At the same time my aunt, also disabled, was going through kidney failure and starting to go blind. Neither could drive. I played caretaker to them both. Trips to the doctor, surgeries, pharmacies, dialysis. My mom's hip is mostly healed now. My aunt is in a full-care facility. This stretched my head injury to the limit and forced me to see the limitations I'd been forced to live with. Last month I made a vow: to focus on my own healing and do what I can for this brain.
WHAT THE INJURY ACTUALLY IS
My injury is called a multi-axis TBI. The impact damaged the front and back of my brain the most. The frontal cortex controls executive function, focus, and task initiation. The occipital cortex processes vision. Some tissue in both areas was destroyed outright. In the surrounding regions, the injury destroyed blood vessels — and without blood supply, those parts of my brain have been starved of oxygen for seven years. The tissue is alive, but it can't heal.
That's why I used to lose entire days to brain fog. Why screens slow me down. Why driving overtaxes me. Why I can't organize myself the way I used to.
Full HBOT at 2.0 ATA regrows blood vessels to these starved areas far more effectively than any lower-pressure protocol, so the surviving tissue can finally recover. The mild version I'm doing now proves my brain responds, but the 100% protocol is what the research shows drives real vascular regrowth. It's the difference between managing symptoms and actually healing.
THE SCIENCE HAS CAUGHT UP
A 2025 study showed Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) at 2.0 ATA pressure with 100% oxygen physically rebuilds blood vessels and nerve fibers in chronic TBI patients with older injuries like mine. I looked into it — there have been many more studies on this since I had my injury in 2018. The neurologists I was seeing weren't up to date on this. HBOT doesn't have lobbyists.
Hazily, I made phone calls to facilities in Southern Idaho. There's a "mild" HBOT facility in Twin Falls that runs at 40% oxygen and lower pressure. I've completed 15 sessions there and I am writing and thinking more clearly than I was a month ago. It has some brain-building benefit, but the 2.0 ATA / 100% oxygen protocol — identified by Dr. Efrati of the Sagol Institute in a comprehensive study — is the one proven to regrow the most blood vessels and boost stem cells the most.
HBOT is standard care in dozens of other countries. The US is only catching on — or rather, insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies are fighting it off. Selling more pills and denying claims makes money.
Indeed, the 100% oxygen protocol is so effective that a newer facility, Summit Hyperbarics in Boise, has been fully funded by a grant from the Albertsons Foundation to treat veterans and first responders for free. I remember when the statistic was 20 veterans a day dying by suicide. The medical system failed them as much as it failed me. I've already referred one person to Summit, but they don't have a grant to treat me. If you know someone like this, refer them now: https://www.shwidaho.org/ — or go to treatnow.org.
THE ASK
I found the door to get to the other side of this brain injury, and I am asking for your help to get me through it.
The science exists, but the access doesn't. Insurance won't cover it. Workers' comp didn't cover it when I looked into this before. The only people who get this treatment are the people who can pay out of pocket. Our healthcare system is failing us. Getting donations on this GoFundMe from people in Spain, Austrlia, Germany and India only drives this home even more. We are the only wealthy country without universal health care — and we are the richest country to boot.
GOAL: $25,000
If this campaign reaches $25,000, I can do everything. I'll complete the recommended 80 HBOT sessions at HBOT of Idaho in Boise, with a PhD from Stanford who really knows what she's doing: https://www.hbotclinicidaho.com/team/dr-jennifer-laude/
HBOT Clinic of Idaho has referred me to Amen Clinics in the Seattle area for neurologists, assessments, SPECT brain imaging, and 8 appointments totaling $5,400.
Cognitive FX in Utah has imaging for an FMRI that would help with asssessing everything. They also have intensive rehab that could help after getting HBOT. This clinic is a sister of a clinic that was help set up by Tom Brady in Boston to help treat head injuries. If I exceed goals I'll put money into rehab here or elsewhere after HBOT.
If this campaign reaches $15,000, I can go to Amen Clinics for their package and do some or all of the 80 sessions at an accredited international facility. China has 5,000 hyperbaric chambers in its hospitals. Medical tourism has priced a lot of people into procedures abroad because, again, our medical system is failing us. I'm still organizing and pricing the floor of all of this as I go.
I'm not expecting one big check. I can reach this goal if a lot of people give $25 or $50. If that's you, thank you. If you can't give but can share this — on social media, with a friend, in a group — that is equally meaningful.
Here's my Facebook so you can follow along:
Politics is not a spectator sport. To everyone out there who has ever run for office, worked a campaign, volunteered, or cut a check — thank you for being in the fight with me in these strange political times.