A young girl who was struck by a foul ball at Houston’s Minute Maid Park last season continues treatment for permanent brain injuries, according to an attorney representing her family.
In May, a two-year-old girl sitting on her grandfather’s lap in a seat down the third-base line suffered a skull fracture after being struck in the back of the head by a line drive off the bat of Chicago Cubs center fielder Albert Almora Jr. in a game between the Cubs and Houston Astros. The girl and her family were sitting in seats just past the protective netting at Minute Maid Park, which ran to the far ends of the dugouts at the time but has since been extended.
An update on her condition was recently provided by attorney Richard Mithoff, who is representing the family. According to Mithoff, the girl has suffered a permanent injury to portions of her brain and is receiving anti-seizure medication, as she remains at risk for seizures. More from the Houston Chronicle:
“She (the child) has an injury to a part of the brain, and it is permanent,” Mithoff said. “She remains subject to seizures and is on medication and will be, perhaps, for the rest of her life. That may or may not be resolved.”
Mithoff said the child’s brain injury has affected her central nervous system in a manner that doctors described as being equivalent to a stroke. Areas of the brain affected, he said, include those in which injuries can result in seizures, loss of sensation and loss of spatial awareness.
Doctors and the child’s parents say other results of the injury include staring spells, periods of unresponsiveness, night terrors and frequent headaches.
“They (doctors) say this is consistent with the kind of injury she suffered,” the attorney said.
The family has not filed legal action.
Within the baseball industry, the injury prompted an ongoing conversation about just how far netting should be extended at ballparks. The Astros were one of a few MLB teams that made in-season changes to netting at their ballparks after the injury, completing a project in August that resulted in the netting running farther down the baselines. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said last month that all 30 teams will have extended netting of some sort at their home facilities by the 2020 season, and several teams around MLB have already announced changes for 2020.
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