Sox fans rush to help woman struck by bat
June 06--Horrified fans frantically waved for paramedics to help a woman who police say suffered a life-threatening head injury when she was struck by the barrel of a broken bat in the second inning of last night's Red Sox game at Fenway Park.
"People were just trying to do what they could to help," said Landon Howell, 34, of Boston, who was sitting about 30 feet behind the woman when she was struck in the face by a piece of Oakland Athletics third baseman Brett Lawrie's splintered maple bat. "There were two men who were standing there shirtless when the stretcher came because they took them off to help shield a small child from seeing what happened."
The unidentified woman, who was sitting in the second row of the stands on the third base line with her husband and little son, was tended to by Boston EMS and rushed to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston police spokesman David Estrada said. A Beth Israel spokeswoman had no information on the woman's condition this morning.
Alex Merlis of Brookline said the woman was "bleeding everywhere" by the time a team of paramedics arrived to help her.
"That's the most blood I've ever seen," a shaken Merlis said, adding that the woman, who may have been in shock immediately after being hit, initially tried to fight off emergency responders who were trying to administer aid.
The woman was injured around 7:40 p.m. in the top of the second inning, Estrada said, when Lawrie broke his bat on a groundout to second base.
"Hopefully everything is OK and she's doing all right," Lawrie said of the fan, adding, "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."
Red Sox center fielder Mookie Betts said he could hear the woman screaming after she was struck and was praying that she would be all right.
"I heard her. But I saw some blood and kind of turned around and looked away," Betts said after the game. "I didn't want to have those sights and things going up to the plate."
Sox manager John Farrell said he was keeping the woman and her family in his thoughts.
"First and foremost our thoughts and concern and certainly our prayers go out to the woman that was struck with the bat, her and her family," Farrell said. "It's a scary moment. All you can think about is a family coming to a ballgame to hopefully get three hours of enjoyment and unfortunately with how close our stands are to the field of action an accident like this tonight, it's certainly disturbing."
Oakland manager Bob Melvin echoed Farrell's comments.
"Obviously anytime anybody's taken off the field in a stretcher, you have your fingers crossed and you realize that's a lot more important than a baseball game," Melvin said. "We're praying that everything's OK."
Bob McGovern contributed to this report.
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