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High School Pitcher in Coma With Brain Injury After Hit by Line Drive

A high school baseball player remains in critical condition after suffering a traumatic brain injury during a practice game, according to the Huffington Post.  The Northern California teen, Gunnar Sandberg, was reportedly hit in the head by a line drive while pitching on March 11 and has been in a coma since the accident.  Although doctors didn't seemed pleased with what they saw in a recent brain scan, they reported positive activity for at least two days in a row sometime after the scan.  According to reports, the hitter was using a metal bat when Sandberg was struck and suffered the life-threatening brain injury, raising concerns about the use of metal bats in high school, since many believe metal bats make the baseball travel faster than wooden bats do, reducing the amount of time pitchers and other players have to react.  Sandberg's school has switched to wooden bats for the rest of the season, with other schools in the area being asked to follow suit, but the debate on the use of metal bats continues.    

In a similar accident, mother Debbie Patch lost her 18-year-old son, Brandon, when he was hit by a baseball during a game in 2003.  Patch believes her son would still be alive today if the same ball had been hit with a wooden bat.  After a jury found that the bat's maker failed to warn consumers about the dangers of their product, Patch and her family received over $800,000 in compensation.

As a Newport News, Nassawadox (Eastern Shore), and Norfolk brain injury lawyer, Lawrence Land expresses his deepest condolences to Debbie Patch and her family and the family of Gunnar Sandberg, and he hopes for the full and speedy recovery of Sandberg.  For free answers to your questions about Virginia traumatic brain injury, whether from a car or truck accident, a sports injury, medical malpractice, or another incident, feel free to contact Lawrence Land confidentially online or by phone at 800-800-1911.

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