When Ron Ogle talks about traumatic brain injury, he speaks with the passion of someone who has overcome a coma to resume his singing career.
And Mr. Ogle says he is determined to keep others from walking the path he's been forced to travel for more than a year.
"I spent 38 years roaming around this planet without thinking about my brain," said Mr. Ogle, who was seriously injured in a Baltimore bar fight in late August 1993.
"If you asked me [to choose between] cutting off my fingers or bashing my head, I probably would have picked my head," he said. "People aren't as concerned about their heads."
That need for concern is something Mr. Ogle, a musician who must now depend on his parents in Finksburg for support, learned the hard way.
According to court papers, Mr. Ogle was in a West Pratt Street bar with his brother and a mutual friend when the disc jockey accused the men of making passes at his girlfriend.
A fight ensued. Mr. Ogle -- who was trying to calm the situation -- was beaten about the head and his wallet was stolen, court papers said.
Mr. Ogle -- who suffered three serious skull fractures, a dislocated jaw and now has various problems with his eyesight and sense of smell -- filed assault, battery and robbery charges about five months later when he began to recover from his injuries. A trial is scheduled for February.
"Whether you've been assaulted, abused, battered, sitting in a car, sky diving or playing football, you need to be aware of [traumatic brain injury]," said Mr. Ogle, noting that it affects about 2 million Americans each year.
"You need to take the time to look because it can happen to you," he said. "For all Americans, there needs to be a designated right to rehabilitation and awareness."
Making others aware of traumatic brain injury is now an all consuming passion for Mr. Ogle, who completed nearly a year in therapy this summer.
Largely due to his efforts, Marylanders will soon hear radio public service announcements about how to prevent traumatic brain injuries.
The 60-second spot -- which Mr. Ogle persuaded Order Productions, a Baltimore recording company, to produce -- includes a toll-free telephone number for more information about the disorder.
The announcement also features Mr. Ogle, a keyboard player and guitarist, singing a song he composed about a fellow patient with traumatic brain injury.
"He's interested in letting people know that many traumatic brain injuries are treatable, that therapy is available," said Joyce Kline, co-owner of Order Productions. "Ron's song 'Special One' is beautiful."
Head injury benefit
In addition, Mr. Ogle has helped Order Productions organize a concert to benefit the Maryland Head Injury Foundation. The concert is scheduled for 7 p.m. April 9 at Kraushaar Auditorium on the Goucher College campus in Towson.
"Ron is just relentless on the phone," said Ms. Kline, noting that Mr. Ogle has contacted sponsors including local television stations, MTV and Pepsi Cola asking for their support of the event.
He has also convinced the Gibson guitar company to donate two $700 acoustic guitars and another company to donate a keyboard for door prizes.
"I asked him, 'What are you going to do with all these instruments, Ron?' " Ms. Kline said. "I said, 'We should start a band for traumatic brain injured patients.' "
Not a bad idea, considering that music is one of the things that put Mr. Ogle on the road to recovery after he awakened from a coma four days after the attack.
"When I first met him, he was in a fog," said Judy Iacarino, a therapist with the Maryland Neuro Rehab Center in Westminster. Most patients with brain injuries need to get used to who they've become -- a person with the same personality but with permanent mental injuries, Ms. Iacarino said. Mr. Ogle was no different.
"He was still in the patient rehab and looking at this as a dream, like 'hey, in two weeks I'm going to be on the West Coast,' " she said. "[When] I told him . . . the average patient is here three to six months, he fell on the floor."
'It wasn't reality to me'
"It seemed like it wasn't reality to me," said Mr. Ogle, 38. "It seemed like in one minute I'd start to run. But days, weeks and months went by and I was still here [in rehabilitation]."
Before his injury, Mr. Ogle said he used to thumb through the phone book, calling restaurants and bars asking for auditions in hopes of landing his next gig.
After the accident, he funneled that energy into calling 'u legislators, public officials and anyone else he thought could help him bring those who injured him to justice.
Ms. Iacarino said she even remembers him stopping strangers in the malls, asking if they knew about traumatic brain injury and recounting the history of his accident.
"Many patients have a lot of anger," Ms. Iacarino said. "They ask, 'Why me?' It's not the most productive thing, but they have to think this through.
"Part of the whole process is getting beyond that."
Working through anger
But the desire to perform again, coupled with the realization that he could remember things better when they were set to music, helped him work through that anger, Mr. Ogle said.
"I want to do what I did before," he said, noting that he used to perform in venues in Baltimore, Las Vegas and Atlantic City.
Recently, he has started to perform again locally, primarily at senior centers and for functions supporting patients with traumatic brain injuries.
"I used to be able to play piano with my feet," he said. "An entertainer is trained to be better than good. To have any form of a problem is a setback. I want to be a hit."
But more important to his recovery was the realization that there were other brain-injured patients in the world, some of whom had more severe challenges to overcome.
"What made me go on was seeing everyone else around me," Mr. Ogle said, recalling a fellow patient who had trouble remembering.
"She could talk, she had a good education, but she couldn't ask for what she wanted for lunch," he said. "She affected me a lot. She could say a few words, but she didn't say much."
On his own, Mr. Ogle designed a lunch menu for the patient so she could merely point to what she wanted.
"He had written every possible lunch item on the menu, then he printed it up into a book," Ms. Iacarino said.
But his desire to help others didn't stop there. His days are now filled calling major companies seeking sponsors for his public service announcements and the concert this spring.
"I'm too enthusiastic about all this," he said, noting he has gathered all the information he can about his condition to help his recovery.
"Imagine you have only one car and you can't buy no other," he said. "It's got a body around it, and the engine is the brain.
"All it needs is a little fine tuning, like new spark plugs, a carburetor. You're not just going to junk the car, because when you do you'll be dead. You'll do everything you can to fix the car.
"You deserve that, you have the right to do that."