Boy hit by foul ball remains in ICU

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — Luke Holko, the 4-year-old Greene Township boy hit by a baseball at a Mahoning Valley Scrappers game Sept. 2, remains in critical condition in the Intensive Care Unit at Akron Children’s Hospital, a spokesman said Friday night.

The boy was taken to the hospital’s main campus after surgery at St. Elizabeth Health Center, where a procedure was performed to remove a piece of bone from the back of his skull and relieve pressure on his brain.

During the second game of a doubleheader at Eastwood Field in Niles, a line drive entered the stands, where Luke, his mother and his father were seated in the first row just behind the Scrappers’ dugout.

The baseball hit the back of Luke’s head, fracturing his skull. The broken bone depressed into his brainstem, causing it to swell.

Immediately after the accident, Luke’s father, Chad, carried the boy in the direction of paramedics, who helped get the boy to an ambulance.

At a press conference a week ago, Luke’s mother, Nicole, and a doctor at Akron Children’s Hospital credited the quick action of paramedics for keeping the boy alive.