BOSTON (WHDH) - A woman who was hit in the face by a foul ball at Fenway Park in 2014 testified Monday after filing a $9.5 million lawsuit against the Boston Red Sox.
Stephanie Taubin, of Brookline, told Suffolk Superior Court jurors that she could hear the bones in her face crack when she was hit by a ball fouled off by slugger David Ortiz.
“I heard the bones crack. It just kind of knocked me,” Taubin said. “I felt an enormous amount of pain.”
Taubin was in the EMC Club behind home plate when she stood to cheer on Ortiz during a late-inning plate appearance. Moments later, a curving line drive left her with facial fractures and neurological damage.
“I saw him hit the ball. I heard the ball come off the bat,” Taubin said. “It came up towards the right and then came over and hit me on the left side of my face.”
Taubin filed a lawsuit against team owner John Henry in 2015, claiming negligence on behalf of the ballclub. The ball came through an area usually protected by glass. The glass had been removed for renovations.
Despite undergoing three surgeries, Taubin said she is still suffering.
“They had to go in through the roof of my mouth, the side of my head, over my eye and under my eye,” Taubin said as she described the surgeries.
Taubin said she was angered when a young woman working as a Red Sox ambassador showed up at the hospital and gave her a gift bag of souvenirs as she was undergoing treatment.
“It was such insult to injury,” Taubin said. “This is the consolation prize for getting hit in the head? They’re going to send you a bobblehead?”
Her testimony is slated to continue on Wednesday.
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