Little League umpire claims defective chest protector led to stroke

GALVESTON � A Houston man has filed suit against Diamond Baseball Co. after he reportedly suffered a stroke after sustaining a cut to his neck from one of its products.

A lawsuit filed April 29 in the Galveston Division of the Southern District of Texas explains that James L. Foreman was driving home from a Little League baseball game he umpired on May 2, 2009, when the defendant's DCP-iX3 UMP umpire chest protector underneath his shirt uniform shifted up, scraped across the side of his neck and dissected his right internal carotid artery.

The dissection led to an almost immediate stroke which rendered James L. Foreman permanently disabled, the original petition states.

According to the complaint, the father of three experienced headaches and nausea after he arrived home from the baseball field. His wife and co-plaintiff, Catherine J. Foreman, discovered him on the couch the next morning unable to move the left side of his body.

James L. Foreman was rushed to St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital where physicians diagnosed him with a right middle cerebral artery infarction.

The stroke has caused him to suffer and continue to suffer left hemiparesis, executive functioning disorder, episodes of fecal and urinary incontinence, seizures, aphasia and cognitive deficit, the suit says.

Consequently, the Foremans seek more than $75,000 and a jury trial.

They are represented by The Buzbee Law Firm.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth M. Hoyt is presiding over the case.

Case No. 3:11-cv-00213