When you’re a new parent, you fear anything terrible happening to your child. Whether it’s a scraped knee or falling off a bed or tripping over a toy, if it could potentially hurt the child, it’s really any parent’s worst nightmare!

Unfortunately, no one could stop a hard softball from hitting poor little McKenna Hovenga’s head during her father’s softball game on May 2, 2018. The baby was sitting in her mother’s lap at the game as the mother was getting ready to nurse her.

It was at that moment when the second baseman threw the ball to the third baseman to try to get the runner out. However, the ball went passed the third basemen, hit a fence, popped over the railing, and went smack dab into McKenna and her mother.

At just seven weeks old, McKenna’s family was, of course, incredibly concerned about how harmful such an intense injury could be. Newborns have very soft heads, and being so young, being hit by such a hard object was extremely dangerous

Luckily, no time was wasted, and McKenna was immediately taken to a local hospital and then flown to the St. Mary’s Hospital at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota for further examination.

Unfortunately, the damage was quite extensive—the little girl suffered skull fractures and two brain bleeds, as well as several seizures, which doctors are still trying to work to stabilize. Thankfully, McKenna was able to leave the hospital after a whopping 40 days there, and now she’s recovering at home with a feeding tube.

On the Facebook page dedicated to the incident called “Healing for McKenna,” the hosts posted that the day McKenna got home “had its highs and its lows—and a whole lot of learning of how life is going to be for the next little while until we get the hang of the tube feedings every three hours.”

We can’t imagine how difficult that must be for everyone involved—having a baby was already a big change, and now the family has to cope with a severely injured newborn. Nonetheless, we’re sure that McKenna will make a breakthrough and heal quickly.

A YouCaring page has been set up to help the family with future medical care for the little girl, so be sure to visit if you’d like to donate to help out the family in need. They’ve already surpassed their $75,000 goal, but appreciate each and every person who donates. Even a little bit, as little as $1, helps.

“We thank each and every one of you for your help and your prayers through this horrible time,” the family posted on their Facebook page.

In addition, if you’re interested in reading updates on McKenna’s recovery, visit their blog. The family posts regularly about how McKenna is doing—the good and the bad.

We really feel for this family, and hope for a speedy recovery for McKenna! What do you think of this story? Have you ever witnessed a situation where such a young baby was injured in such a terrible way?