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Iowa baby struck by softball may have suffered brain damage

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May 14th, 2018 by Ric Hanson

ROCHESTER, Minn. (AP) — Doctors say an infant may have suffered brain damage when struck by an overthrown softball at her father’s game in northeastern Iowa. Mayo Clinic physicians in Rochester, Minnesota, have been balancing various medications as they treat 8-week-old McKenna Hovenga, whose skull was fractured. She was struck while in the arms of her mother, Kassy, on May 2 in Shell Rock, some 95 miles (150 kilometers) northeast of Des Moines.

A post on the Healing for McKenna Facebook page says doctors have pinpointed her seizures to two areas of the brain that appear to have been damaged, areas related to motor skills and development. The extent of any damage remains unclear. Another post says Kassy was allowed to hold McKenna on Mother’s Day for the first time in 10 days.