Toddler struck by foul ball at baseball game is permanently brain damaged

A two-year-old girl who was hit by a foul ball at a baseball game is suffering permanent brain damage, a lawyer for the child’s family said.

The girl, who has not been named, sustained a skull fracture, subdural bleeding, brain contusions and brain edema after she was hit by the ball at a Houston Astros game on May 29, 2019.

Richard Mithoff, the attorney representing the girl’s family, recently told the Houston Chronicle that the two-year-old may never fully recover.

‘She has an injury to a part of the brain, and it is permanent. 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.

Doctors have reportedly described the injury as the equivalent of a stroke in its damage to the girl’s central nervous system, according to Mithoff.

‘She is able to continue with much of her routine as a girl her age would do, but her parents have to be particularly vigilant, as they are,’ Mithoff said.

‘She has wonderful parents and is receiving wonderful care. They obviously are concerned, but she is blessed with a family that is doing relatively well, considering everything.’

The horrific incident occurred in the fourth inning of a game between the Houston Astros and the Chicago Cubs at Minute Made Park.

Cubs centerfielder Albert Almora fouled a ball hard down the third-base line, which struck the girl in her head as she sat on her grandfather’s lap in a seet just past the edge of the stadium’s protective netting.

She was rushed away for treatment as Almora broke down in tears on the field.

The horrific accident led to a public outcry for more protective netting at baseball stadiums.

In August, Minute Maid Park extended its protective netting down both the left-field and right-field line.

Last Month, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said ‘all 30 clubs will have netting in place that extends substantially beyond the far end of the dugout’ for the 2020 season.