According to the Columbus Dispatch, Dr. Michael Lipton, associate director of the Gruss Magnetic Resonance Research Center at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, will conduct MRIs as 50 participants perform tasks involving short-term memory, inattention, and impulsiveness.

Those participants include 25 Ohio veterans with traumatic brain injuries and one brother or other close male relative each, so the doctor can compare a damaged brain to a healthy brain and rule out factors such as genetics and upbringing.

Traumatic brain injuries occur when the brain is jarred or shaken inside the skull, such as in a car or truck accident. Army veteran Ryan Gleich “suffered his most significant brain injury in 2003 outside Baghdad when a roadside bomb lifted the tail end of his Humvee from the road and tossed him across the vehicle,” the Dispatch reported.

Almost immediately, Gleich became antisocial, “ultra-aggressive,” and forgetful, which led to his divorce. Six years later, the 33-year-old has remarried and found help from support groups, but he still finds it difficult to motivate himself to leave the house, he said.

“Chase Russell was injured in multiple close-range explosions in 2010 and 2011 in Afghanistan,” per the Dispatch. “The worst was in September 2011, when a suicide bomber blew up his base.”

Like Gleich, the 25-year-old veteran has shut himself off from friends. He also has a hard time keeping a job and lacks the focus to go to college. “Nothing is really the same as it used to be,” he said.

Below, Cleveland brain injury attorney Chris Mellino discusses the difference between a head injury and a brain injury, common causes of a brain injury, and symptoms of a traumatic brain injury.

“I take full responsibility for this,” he allegedly stated. “Everything will be okay.”

Later that year, Johnson filed a medical malpractice lawsuit in which she admitted Smith’s statement as evidence of his negligence. When she dropped the lawsuit in 2006 and refiled it in 2007, she lost that right.

Why?

September 13, 2004, Ohio enacted the “medical apology statute,” which states that a doctor’s apology cannot be used against him in court.

“Physicians are and should be sympathetic and empathetic. Fear of future legal action shouldn’t impede that,” Dr. William Wulf, medical director of Central Ohio Primary Care, told the Columbus Dispatch.

Johnson filed an appeal, and the 11th District Court of Appeals ruled that Smith’s apology should have been admitted because he apologized before the law went into effect. In April, however, the Supreme Court reversed that ruling in a unanimous decision.

“Justices said lawmakers were ‘clear and unambiguous’ that the prohibition applied to all suits filed after the effective date of September 13, 2004, regardless of the date of the medical conduct in question,” the Associated Press reported.

Following the Supreme Court’s ruling, the Ohio State Medical Association issued a press release stating that it intends to pursue a bill that will clarify the statute.

Now that you know you may not submit a doctor’s apology as evidence, you may wonder what evidence you need in order to prove that your doctor was negligent. Below, Cleveland medical malpractice attorney Chris Mellino explains.