THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 13, 1995 TAG: 9508130281
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY GARY EDWARDS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Long : 117 lines
Janet Stephenson sat in her living room three weeks after a freak accident and held up what she calls ``the $31,000 softball.''
She smiled ruefully and said: ``All the players on the team signed it. This is the ball that did this.''
What the ball did was strike Stephenson in the right eye, causing serious injury, which required surgery and a 13-day hospital stay, and possible lingering effects.
About 8:30 p.m. July 7, Stephenson was sitting on a cooler next to the bleachers filling out a lineup card for her community league coed softball team, Pockets Cafe. The eight-year softball veteran was penciling in the batting order and waiting to take the field as the Pockets catcher.
Out on field No. 2 at the Rosemont Forest Ballfield, next to Salem Middle School, a game between two other teams was two outs from ending.
A batter from Beavers and Buttheads hit a ground ball to the Smokey's Bandits shortstop, who fielded it cleanly and flipped the ball to second baseman Rick Thibodeau, who then tagged the bag, pivoted and fired toward first. The first baseman saw the ball coming and ducked, deciding it was too hot to handle. The 12-inch hollow ball crossed the 4-foot high fence separating the field from the bleachers and hit Stephenson square in the eye.
``It sounded like a .38 going off,'' said Johnny Whiteside, Pockets coach and Stephenson's brother. He had been giving Stephenson the lineup and had walked a few feet away. ``I've never seen any injury like it. I've been in fights, had broken noses, been hit with line drives and so forth. Her eye puffed up right away, swelled up two or three inches.''
Stephenson's son, David, 8, and daughter, Krystal, 10, were standing beside their mother when the accident occurred. Melissa Daulk, who has played with Pockets and was 6 months pregnant at the time, was on the other side of Stephenson sitting in the bleachers.
Krystal saw the throw coming but didn't have time to warn her mother.
David Jr. said: ``The first baseman ran over to mom and took us away from her. It looked like her eye had been pumped up, like with a tire pump.''
Stephenson never lost consciousness. A spectator who told her that he was a medic ran to Stephenson and placed ice on the eye. City firefighters Jim Todd and Albert Fam from Station No. 19, located a half-block away at Pleasant Valley Road and Lynnhaven Parkway, responded. They arrived and treated her at the field for about 10 minutes, said Fam.
``Her nose and her eye were bleeding. She had a large goose egg over her eye. She responded when we talked to her. We stabilized her, took her vital signs, strapped her to a back board and helped put her in the ambulance,'' Fam said.
The Davis Corner Volunteer Rescue Squad transported her to Sentara Leigh Memorial Hospital.
``I remember my blood pressure was 60/39,'' said Stephenson, who has worked as a paramedic and is a certified nursing assistant. ``I knew I had to keep my feet up, help to keep me from going into shock.
``The emergency room doctors thought I'd suffered brain damage. They did an (immediate) CAT scan and an MRI. They showed the imprint from the laces of the ball. They said an inch or so either way and I could have died.''
Thibodeau was unable to play the next evening, he said. Although he realizes his throw was ``a freak accident'' that doesn't salve his feelings about the injury.
``I went over and sat down on our bench after I saw what happened, saw them working on her,'' said the 6-foot former Penn State pitcher. ``At first, I didn't realize. It happened so fast.''
The Leigh Memorial emergency room staff worked on Stephenson for four hours. She says she didn't receive any painkillers because of the possibility of brain damage. She was bleeding from her right ear. She was transported to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital for more extensive treatment.
Doctors at Norfolk General determined that Stephenson had suffered an orbital blowout fracture of the eye, broken bones above and below her eye.
Dr. William Blaylock, an ophthalmologist with a subspecialty in oculoplastic surgery, operated on Stephenson 10 days after the accident. He repaired the broken eye socket and placed a titanium plate beneath the eye during the two-hour surgery.
``It was the worst injury I've seen from softball,'' said Blaylock, who often treats eye trauma. ``It was hard to believe a softball did that. People play softball because it is less dangerous than baseball.''
Blaylock said that it is too early to tell what lasting effects, if any, Stephenson will suffer.
``She has 20/25 vision in the injured eye now. She could recover completely or require corrective lenses or further treatment. We won't know for several months.''
Of that $31,000 medical bill, Stephenson will have to pay about $5,000 herself, she said.
Community league players sign waivers to release the city from liability. That applies to the playing field, said Stephenson.
``I've played ball long enough. I know injuries can happen while you're playing. I've seen people get hurt. Playing, not sitting and watching.''
A perforated metal shield and bandage cover her right eye. Three weeks after the accident, swelling and discoloration were still visible. The muscles of the injured eye do not work in concert with her left eye, she said.
``I see three of everything when I take it off,'' she said. ``And it still hurts. Nothing like it did though.''
But that's not the worst part, said Stephenson:
``There were my two kids, a pregnant woman and several older people sitting around me. What if the ball had hit them? That's what really scared me when I realized what happened.
``Can't they build the fences higher to protect people? How much could it cost?''
To attempt to answer that question, Stephenson has retained the services of attorney Stephen Swain.
``I don't hold anyone responsible, but I think something should be done,'' Stephenson said. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by\ D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
Janet Stephenson holds ``the $31,000 softball'' - signed by her
teammates - that left her with a shattered right eye. A perforated
metal shield and bandage protect the surgically repaired eye. ``I
see three of everything when I take it off,'' she said, three weeks
after the accident.
by CNB