Brain Injury

The plaintiff entered the Field House to inform her son that he needed to leave to eat dinner, when she was suddenly struck in the head by a baseball that had been hit off the metal bat of a 12-year-old who was taking live baseball batting practice in the Field House. The Field House is dedicated to football, soccer, and lacrosse. Batting practice is limited to the “Hitting House,” a separate area from the Field House. Because the Field House is limited to other sports, the plaintiff was not aware, nor could she reasonably anticipate, that live baseballs were firing across the Field House. 

Immediately after the impact, the plaintiff experienced severe pain in her head. An emergency medical professional employed by the St. James who responded to the scene diagnosed her with a concussion and arranged for her to be taken to the INOVA Fairfax emergency room by ambulance. After a medical diagnosis of concussion at Inova, she was released home. The plaintiff returned to the ER three days later after suffering from seizure-like symptoms. She remained at the hospital for three days so that doctors could supervise her acute symptoms. 

After this episode, the plaintiff could not return to work for over three months. When she did return, she could only work part-time for an additional three months. While she has been able to work full-time since mid-2020, she continues to experience chronic headaches, vertigo, and memory loss. But as a single income earner for two children, she does her best to work through the disabling symptoms. Both a neurologist and a neuropsychiatrist have diagnosed her with a mild traumatic brain injury. Given that she is only 38 years old, these impairments will likely have a significant effect on her ability to progress in her career, and they continue to affect other facets of her life.