Baseball fan fighting for life in hospital after being impaled by piece of broken bat which flew into stand at Boston Red Sox game

 
Emergency treatment: the woman was said to be in a critical condition (Picture: AP)
Rachel Blundy6 June 2015

A baseball fan was left fighting for her life in hospital after she was impaled by a piece of broken bat that flew into the stands during a Boston Red Sox game.

The woman suffered life-threatening injuries after she was hit in the head by part of the bat at Fenway Park stadium in Boston last night.

The Red Sox were playing Oakland Athletics when the accident happened. Oakland's Brett Lawrie is reported to have broken his bat during play, and part of it hurtled towards a group of spectators.

The match was halted in the middle of the second inning as emergency crews took the victim away on a stretcher.

She had been seen sitting in the stands earlier with a small child and a man. After she was injured, witnesses said they saw the man tending to her while other people tried to console the distraught child.

Accident: a piece of broken bat hit the victim (Picture: AP)
AP

Witness Alex Merlis described the impact of the bat hitting the woman as "violent" in an interview with the Associated Press.

He said: "She bled a lot. A lot. I don't think I've ever seen anything like that."

Brett Lawrie told reporters that he had hoped the woman was "all right" as he tried to refocus on the game.

He said: "I've seen bats fly out of guys' hands in(to) the stands and everyone's OK, but when one breaks like that, has jagged edges on it, anything can happen."

The Major League Baseball implemented a series of changes to bat regulations after several incidents of flying broken bats.

Although dozens of fans at big league ballparks are hit by foul balls every season, there has been only one fatality, according to baseball researchers.

Injured: the victim is helped from the stands on a stretcher during the Boston Red Sox baseball game (Picture: AP)
AP

In 1970, a 14-year-old boy was killed by a foul line drive off the bat of Manny Mota at Dodger Stadium.

Red Sox manager John Farrell said: "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.

"A scary moment, certainly. All you can think about is a family, they come 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 is certainly disturbing."

Additional reporting by the Press Association

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