California teen in critical condition

Legal news for California traumatic brain injury attorneys. A high school baseball player was hit in the head by a baseball, metal bats questioned.

California traumatic brain injury attorney alert- A Marian Catholic High School baseball player suffered a TBI, officials questioning safety of metal bats.

San Francisco, CA—School officials are questioning the safety of metal bats after a Northern California high school baseball player was critically injured when he was hit in the head by a baseball. The 16-year-old high school student was rushed to the hospital on March 11, 2010 and is still in critical condition as of March 23, 2010, as reported by NBC Sports.

The Marian Catholic High School baseball player, Gunnar Sandberg, 16, was struck in the head by a baseball while playing in a practice game against Concord’s De La Salle High School. The hitter reportedly used a metal bat that sent the line drive for Sandberg. Metal bats apparently distribute weight more evenly than wooden bats, which are harder to swing fast.

As of Tuesday, March 23, 2010 Sandberg is still listed in critical condition at Marin General Hospital, after he was taken out of a medically induced coma on Friday, March 19, 2010. On Monday he had a brain scan, which has left doctors worried because they “didn’t like what they saw.” The Sandberg family stated, “There has been some positive activity yesterday and today, which is keeping us hopeful.”

The recent accident has educators questioning the overall safety of metal bats, which are used because come coaches believe they make the ball travel faster, but limits the players reaction time. Marion Catholic High School has decided that its players will use wooden bats for the remainder of the season. The Marian high school principal, Chris Valdez, plans to ask the Marian County Athletic League, which consists of 10 schools, at a meeting on Thursday to ban the use of metal bats.

In 2002 the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) http://www.cpsc.gov/ stated there is not enough sufficient evidence to conclude that non-wooden bats pose an “unreasonable risk of injury,” leading them to turn down a request to institute a rule that “all non-wooden bats perform like wood bats.”

Legal News Reporter: Nicole Howley-Legal news for California traumatic brain injury lawyers.