Adam Fisher holds up his mail-in ballot ahead of the 2020 election. After a traumatic brain injury, his family moved him to New York, where he could get 24-hour in-home care from the state.

On New Year’s Eve, my brother-in-law Adam Fisher, a San Francisco restaurateur and luminary, died after suffering a prolonged seizure. 

He was 63, but had spent the last 31 years living a life in New York that bore little resemblance to the one he left behind after being involved in a car crash during a vintage road rally in Hopland (Mendocino County). 

At the time of his accident, Adam was happily married, the father of a young daughter and the co-owner of the hip South of Market night spot the Ace Cafe. A lover of ’40s suits and ties, he also restored British motorcycles and cars at a garage he rented on 10th Street.

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When my wife and I began dating, he was also a disc jockey at the DNA Lounge. Kind and generous, he took me under his wing, patiently teaching me the craft and letting me spin records during his shift even though I had no idea what I was doing.

But all that changed in an instant when his Triumph hit a water slick, skidded off the roadway and barreled into an oak tree, killing his passenger and leaving him with a severe traumatic brain injury. 

Roughly 5.3 million Americans live with disabilities incurred from a traumatic brain injury, and the consequences and prospects for recovery vary wildly depending on the severity of the injury and the state where a patient lives. And now, with President Donald Trump’s Medicaid cuts starting to take effect, that uneven distribution of services and outcomes is about to become even more glaring. 

After multiple surgeries, stints at rehabilitation hospitals and an incredibly difficult few months back at home being taken care of........

© San Francisco Chronicle