State Settles With Ex-Con

Ohio's prisons department has agreed to pay 350-thousand dollars to settle a medical negligence claim made by a former inmate at the Belmont Correctional Institution.Joshua Leach complained of leg numbness and left hand weakness to a prison physician while at the facility in 2008. Rather than conduct an MRI scan of the cervical spine recommended by an emergency room doctor, a prison physician recommended an electromyogram/nerve conduction study first. Results from that study necessitated an MRI, which was conducted seven weeks later. Leach claimed the prison doctor failed to timely diagnose the problem.