This Mom Saved An Umpire’s Life At Her Son’s Little League Game After He Was Hit In The Throat By A Baseball
Thanks to the actions of a mom and surgeon at a Little League baseball game in Massachusetts, a tragedy was averted.
Dr. Jennifer LaFemina, a surgical oncologist at UMass Memorial Health in Worcester, Massachusetts, was in the stands, watching her son play in a baseball tournament in Oxford when the home plate umpire got hit in the throat by a baseball.
The baseball had bounced on the ground and struck the umpire, Korey Pontbriand, in the throat as he turned to avoid a hit to the face.
Afterward, Pontbriand fell to his knee to catch his breath and continued to umpire the game, even though he was in pain.
According to the sports organization Algonquin Baseball and Softball, LaFemina noticed that he was showing “some concerning behavior and symptoms.”
She and her surgical assistant, Emily Lutfy, who was watching the game with her, examined Pontbriand. They advised him to go to the hospital for treatment.
However, Pontbriand declined and continued officiating the game. He had also lost his voice following the incident. LaFemina kept an eye on him from the stands.
“[LaFemina] told me that she was going to be watching him to see how he was,” recalled Phil Davis, president of the Oxford Little League, the team that was playing against LaFemina’s son in the tournament.
“She came and found me in the fifth inning and told me that it looked like he was struggling out there and getting worse, so we were able to get him off the field at that time.”
Eric Hood – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
During the sixth inning, LaFemina finally convinced Pontbriand to leave the field. As they were preparing to take Pontbriand to a local hospital, he collapsed. LaFemina immediately began performing CPR alongside her medical assistant.
By the time Davis returned from the fire station next door with a defibrillator, the pair had already revived Pontbriand.
Once he had a pulse, he was rushed to UMass Memorial Health with life-threatening injuries. He received emergency treatment and has been showing improvement but remains in the intensive care unit.
Pontbriand had been a Little League umpire for over 10 years. Davis believes he would not have survived if LaFemina and her assistant had not been in attendance at the game.
“It was just fate that she was there that night,” said Davis. “We’re all trained in a basic CPR class, but there is no doubt in my mind that if she were not present at that game, along with her assistant, we would be telling a whole different story about how somebody lost their life at a Little League game.”
While LaFemina was delivering CPR, her son scored the game-winning run. His team, the Algonquin All-Stars, went on to win the tournament the next day.
All in all, the situation wrapped up with a happy ending. It just goes to show that our actions can make a positive difference in the world.
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More About:Human Interest