Family of boy hit by baseball holds onto hope
The batter rocketed a shot off a 31-ounce metal bat. The ball slammed into Steven's chest, just above his heart, knocking him backward. He clutched his chest, then made a motion to reach for the ball on the ground to pick it up and throw to first base.
But he never made it that far. The ball had struck his chest at the precise millisecond between heartbeats, sending him into cardiac arrest, according to his doctors. He crumpled to the ground and stopped breathing.
Another tragic example of commotio cordis when there is a blow to just the "right"/wrong part of the chest during a very tiny window in the heartbeat cycle which disrupts the heart's rhythm.
I am deeply sorry for the family, and I understand the tremendous emotional and financial burden that has been placed upon them... but, lawsuits?
His family plans to file a lawsuit Monday against the maker of the metal bat that was used in the game, against Little League Baseball and a sporting goods chain that sold the bat. The family contends metal baseball bats are inherently unsafe for youth games because the ball comes off them much faster than from wooden bats.
IANAL, but isn't there something about implied assumption of risk? Commotio cordis is rare, but has made the news a lot precisely because of similar accidents, sometimes fatal, especially in youth sports.
Serious question, mostly directed at ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) schmengie and rcfox for calibration purposes: is the linked AP article biased towards one side or the other in this story?
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