Parents of children in sports in Houston know how some sports can cause serious injuries to their children. Injuries from sports are common and many of them can result in serious and long-term damage, like brain injuries, to their children. Safety measures are constantly being evaluated to see what can be done to help keep kids safe.
All sports carry an inherent risk of injury, but evaluating those injuries can help to determine if more protective gear is required. The parents of softball players who have been injured are speaking out regarding making the use of masks mandatory for certain positions. The parents want infields to be required to wear masks because of the risk of brain trauma from head injuries that can occur. One parent has a daughter who was pitching at a game when the ball hit her in the head shattering the orbital floor of her left eye, fractured her nose, and causing a deep cut near her eyebrow. Another parent’s daughter who was also pitching at a game was hit with a ball near her left temple. She was in the hospital where she underwent emergency surgery on her brain and spent more than a day in a coma. The neurosurgeon was worried that she would remain in a vegetative state for the rest of her life.
These tragic accidents have caused these parents to ask the Kentucky High School Athletic Association to require pitchers and infielders to wear masks in order to protect their heads. They believe these masks would have saved their daughters from the brain trauma that they suffered.
Families who have been affected by brain injuries know how scary these injuries can be. Often, the afflicted require long-term care that can be very expensive. When families are faced with such tragic situations, the assistance of an experience attorney can help piece together every element of the incident to determine if negligence was involved. If so, families may be able to receive compensation for medical expenses, loss of quality of life and more.
Keeping student athletes safe is the number one priority. Sports always carry the risk of injuries but proper protective gear can prevent many dangerous accidents.
Source: Kentucky.com, “Parents of injured softball players want masks to be mandatory,” Mike Fields, May 3, 2014
