A Saskatoon woman whose son was brutally attacked and left with a severe brain injury wants the provincial government to change the way crime victims are cared for. For eight years, Sharlene Lange has had to fight a bureaucratic battle just to try and provide her son with a decent standard of living.

Everyday actions others take for granted are a struggle for Kutler Lange; he suffered a severe brain injury during a home invasion in the fall of 2003. His unknown assailant smacked Lange in the head with a whiskey bottle, and stomped on him while unconscious. Left in a pool of blood, he was in a coma for three months. "I have to walk super slowly, I have to do everything in a slow motion."

The man who attacked Kutler received nine years in jail. But Kutler's mother Sharlene says it was her son who ended up with a life sentence.

"It has such a detrimental effect on everybody's life, his and everybody's around him," says Sharlene.

Sharlene has had to help Kutler fight for adequate compensation every inch of the way. Right now, he receives at most $700 a month from the very little work he can do at a photo shop. Otherwise, he lives on social assistance; and because the payments are clawed back from his photo shop pay, she says it leaves Kutler with about $1,300 a month. Lange says that's not enough. "They pushed me into welfare, it's totally not fair. I didn't deserve this."

Sharlene says the system is broken because he's not entitled to anything else except a meager payout for lost income as a crime victim. "If you happen to fall between the cracks, and have a job, they'll pay you the $25000 income replacement."

She says if Kutler had suffered the same injury in a car accident, the compensation would be far different. According to SGI documents, ‘no fault' insurance pays a lump sum of $213,000 for a 'catastrophic' injury like Kutler's. He would be entitled to a lost income benefit of $43,000 a year, plus any medical and rehabilitation costs. Sharlene wants disabled crime victims to be paid in a similar fashion.

"My son's life, for the rest of his life is on the line here," says Sharlene. "I'm sorry; I just can't live with that, because it's just not right."

Pat Thiele, a Justice Ministry official, says officials are reviewing the program, but its focus is really helping victims through the court process. "Afterwards, there would be other programs and ministries that have programs and services to assist after that process is over."

To help the cause in opening some doors with policy makers, Kutler Lange has hired a lawyer to make sure his message of fair compensation gets heard in the right places. He hopes to ensure others don't go down the same road he's been on.