Eight-year-old mysteriously dies


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Dylan Williams was practicing with his Union City (Ind.) Little League team when he was struck in the neck with a line drive. The boy immediately fell to the ground and never got up, sending both coaches and teammates into utter confusion.

"He just fell to the ground," Erick Williams, Dylan?s father, told WXIN. "I even yelled at him to get up."

There was a reason for Erick Williams to be in shock; while it was clear that Dylan was hurt by the line drive, there was no sense that it should have been life threatening. Usually, fatal heart conditions are brought on by chest impacts and other similar strikes, not those to the neck.

Doctors apparently agreed, as did CAT scans of the area of Williams injuries, concluding that Dylan Williams died from a heart attack, but couldn?t explain to his parents or Little League officials why he had suffered cardiac arrest.

    "They?re at a loss," said Georgiana Williams, Dylan?s mother. "They didn?t know how to explain it to us. They didn?t know. They did CAT scans on where the ball hit him. Nothing. No injuries."

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Probably damaged either his carotid or vertebral artery, most likely the vertebral. It takes surprizingly little force and can impede the blood supply to critical portions of the brain.

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What, pray, is a "line drive"?

In baseball, it's when a batter drives the ball in a sharp, straight line. Usually hits have arches on them.

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Dying after being whacked in the neck by a hard ball moving at speed is hardly a mystery.

A tragic freak accident and a reminder to me to recommend safer hobbies to my son.

Once he is out of the house, he can take up BASE jumping if he likes, but until then....

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Dying after being whacked in the neck by a hard ball moving at speed is hardly a mystery.

A tragic freak accident and a reminder to me to recommend safer hobbies to my son.

Once he is out of the house, he can take up BASE jumping if he likes, but until then....

 

No, what is odd is the coroner saying it had nothing to do with his death. 

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Shock, perhaps?

 

He likely had a bad heart and when the ball hit him he got scared, raised his heart rate / BP and died. I mean, what else could it be, that is my differential diagnosis with practically zero medical training. Might have been shock, who knows.

 

Poor kid.

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