A woman watching the Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park with a child suffered “life-threatening” injuries to her face after she was hit by a broken bat as she sat in the stands. The woman, her son, and a man were seated together in a row between the home plate and the visitor’s dugout on the third base side when Oakland Athletics batter Brett Lawrie’s bat smashed as he hit a ball. Shards of the wooden bat went flying into the stands, hitting the unsuspecting woman in the face. Paramedics rushed to the stands and carried the screaming woman out on a stretcher.
The Boston Globe reports that when the incident occurred, the unnamed woman was seated in the second row back in the section between the home plate and the visitor’s dugout along the third base line. She was seated with a child believed to be her son and a man. After being hit by the bat, the woman screamed out in pain. The scream was so loud that it was even audible for those listening to the game on game radio.
The game was immediately halted and paramedics on-sight rushed into the stands to provide emergency care to the woman who was bleeding profusely from the face. In addition to the medical team, police officers also rushed to shield the young child from the horrifying scene before him. A police officer scooped up the young boy and covered his eyes.
Boston Red Sox president Larry Lucchino also rushed down to the field where he could be seen speaking with the man who had been seated with the woman. The victim was taken to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center for treatment. According to the Daily Mail , the woman’s injuries were described as “life-threatening.”
Fans at the Boston Red Sox game at Fenway park began tweeting about the incident and offering their condolences to the victim. Video shows the woman being taken away in a stretcher in a tunnel that runs under Fenway park. There is no word on the woman’s condition at this point.
Since the incident, baseball players have been speaking out about the dangers of broken bats and fly balls. Brett Lawrie blames limited netting in Fenway Park and says that those seated behind home plate and along the first and third base lines must be extra vigilant as there is “no time to react.”
“Hopefully everything is OK and she’s doing all right. You’ve got limited netting here in Boston. When you’re behind home plate and you’re along the third base side, the first base side, you’ve really got to be heads up for foul balls, kind of anything coming into the stands, because it’s so close and really no time to react.”
Centerfielder Mookie Betts says he hopes that the park will look into ways to prevent this from happening again.
“You never want to see anything like that. You always try to focus on the game, But it’s always scary when something like that happens. Hopefully we can find some way to prevent those things but accidents happen. I just hope she’s OK.”
[Image Credit: Getty Images/ Kayana Szymczak/ Twitter]