79-year-old Dodgers fan was killed by foul ball, LA coroner confirms

The Los Angeles County coroner has determined that a 79-year old woman was killed by a foul ball at a game at Dodger Stadium in August, The Associated Press reports.

Linda Goldbloom, who ESPN reports was seated in the ballpark's loge level — one section above the field's protective netting — with her husband, brother-in-law, and sister-in-law, was struck in the head by a ball hit by a San Diego Padres batter in the top of the ninth inning. She was rushed to a hospital for emergency brain surgery, but remained largely unresponsive until her death on Aug. 29. The coroner's report, obtained by ESPN, described Goldbloom's cause of death as "acute intracranial hemorrhage due to history of blunt force trauma."

The death, which The Washington Post says is the first such fatality at a Major League Baseball game in almost 50 years, came in the first season in which MLB teams expanded their ballparks' protective netting, a response to a 2017 incident in which a two-year-old girl was struck in the face by a foul ball at Yankee Stadium. ESPN notes that the reverse side of baseball tickets contain language that has generally protected teams from legal exposure in such cases; Goldbloom's daughter, Jana Brody, would not comment to ESPN on any legal action the family might yet take, but said that a fund may be created for future such victims in her mother's memory. "My mom went to the game and never came home," she added. "People need to be aware, and we'd really like them to be protected in the future."

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A Dodgers spokesman told ESPN that Goldbloom and her husband "were great Dodgers fans" and said the matter of the "tragic accident ... has been resolved between the Dodgers and the Goldbloom family."