A young little league player is suffering from permanent and debilitating injuries from a line drive during a recent games. The family of the young boy went after the manufacturer of the bat used in the game to collect compensation for the injuries. They were recently granted close to $15 million from Little League Baseball. The young player was left brain-damaged after he was hit by the line drive off a metal bat. The family of the injured player said that this never would have happened, and would have been less severe, if wooden bats were used instead of metal bats, according to ESPN New York.
“This settlement provides them with some relief and comfort that Steven will get the care he needs for the rest of his life,” said the family’s attorney.
Our Boston sports injury attorneys understand that there are about 30 million kids and teenagers who participate in some form of organized sports. There are also about 4 million injuries that occur from these sporting events, too! While the most common injury from sporting events are strains and sprains, brain injury continues to the number one cause of sports-related fatalities among children, according to the Boston Children’s Hospital. Many of these injuries are the rest of collisions, being hit by an object, overexertion and falls. It’s not all about the games either. Roughly 60 percent of organized sports-related injuries happen during practice. About 20 percent of kids who play sports are injured every year. About a fourth of these injuries are considered to be serious.
According to the president of Little League Baseball Inc., the family will receive the funds that they need to ensure that they can cover the lifetime care that he will require as a result of this unfortunately accident. He adds that this type of accident is not likely in baseball among this age.
The tragic event happened when the young player was pitching. The batter swung at his pitch and sent a line drive right into the young pitcher’s chest. Unfortunately, it struck him at that exact millisecond between heartbeats and sent him immediately into cardiac arrest. He fell to the ground and stopped breathing. A nearby professional conducted cardiopulmonary resuscitation on him until medical response teams could arrive.
Paramedics put an oxygen mask on him and rushed him to a hospital. Unfortunately by that time, the damage was already done to his brain as it had been without oxygen for nearby 20 minutes.
Children between the ages of 5- and 14-years old account for nearly half of all sports-related injuries that are treated in emergency rooms every year. The severity of sports-related injuries increases as they age, too! The highest rates for these injuries are for boy. For them, the highest rates of injury, in regards to sports, are ice soccer, hockey and rugby.
If you or your child has been injured in a sporting accident, contact Injury Lawyer Jeffrey S. Glassman for a free and confidential consultation to discuss your case. Call 877-617-5333.
More Blog Entries:
New Guidelines Addressing Sport Injuries in Massachusetts, Boston Personal Injury Attorney Blog, July 21, 2012