Baby hit in the head by a softball airlifted to Mayo Clinic in Rochester
A baby hit in the head by a softball is fighting for her life at Mayo Clinic's Saint Marys Hospital in Rochester.
McKenna Hovenga, just 7 weeks old, was hit in the head by an overthrown softball while she and her mother were watching a game in Waverly, Iowa on Wednesday night.
Waverly is about an hour south of the Minnesota border, so she was immediately airlifted to Rochester and diagnosed with bleeding of the brain and a skull fracture, according to KWWL.
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A Facebook page titled "Healing for McKenna," which has more than 60,000 followers already, has been posting frequent updates about her condition – and she appears to have come a long way after spending the first 48 hours suffering multiple seizures, some of them coming in clusters, due to swelling of her brain and pressure from blood clots.
An update on a GoFundMe page dedicated to McKenna says she suffered a nearly two-hour-long seizure on Friday, forcing doctors to induce her into a temporary coma to allow her brain to rest.
The fundraiser has so far raised in excess of $13,000 for the family.
An update from her mother on Saturday morning said McKenna was doing better.
"McKenna is doing good this morning!! Everything is stable. Blood count stayed stable after her last transfusion. They have lowered the blood pressure meds and she is handling it very well! They also have her temp stable. There is talk of possibly starting a slow drip of food, but not worried about it at this time! AND STILL SEIZURES FREE!!!!!"
More updates state that she had gone at least 30 hours without a seizure but she was still dealing with bleeding of her brain, and it's likely that she'll remain in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit until next Friday.
