Three years ago, Megan McKenzie learned the hard way to look both ways.
That’s when her life took an unexpected turn for the worse, as she was struck in the forehead with a baseball bat swung by her older brother in the front yard of their family’s house.
“I told him to quit because I had to walk in front of him,” McKenzie recalled of the incident. “He didn’t hear me. I walked in front of him and I wasn’t looking.”
She was struck just above the right eye, sending her straight to the ground.
McKenzie said she lost consciousness for about a minute.
“It was a 30-ounce, double-barreled bat,” said Megan, who will be a fifth grader at Bogue Chitto Elementary School this fall. “My eyes were shut for a few minutes.”
Megan’s mother, Lori, also recalled the accident.
“I was sitting in my chair and I heard her squawking,” Lori McKenzie said. “I ran to the back door and she came to the porch with blood gushing everywhere.”
Lori rushed Megan, one of three children adopted by her and husband Dan, to Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center.
“I’m one of those mothers that thinks if you can fix it at home, you don’t go to the doctor all the time.”
Lori, however, immediately knew this was bad and she needed to get her daughter to the hospital.
As it turned out, the result wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Megan’s head received 10 stitches — and she got a popsicle.
She was also given a CT scan and was diagnosed with a concussion.
“I was thinking, ‘Would I have to have surgery?’ ” she said.
Megan was also told to stay out of the water for two weeks — a tough task considering she is an avid swimmer currently in search of a swim team for which she can compete.
“I washed my hair in the sink and my back was hurting because I had to lean over the sink,” Megan said. “It was freaky.”
It wasn’t all bad — at least not for Megan, who was waited on hand and foot by her brothers.
“They did stuff for her for a while,” Lori said. “Then they got to the point where they were like, ‘Enough is enough.’ ”
The mishap had not only physical consequences but psychological ones as well. Megan finished her buddy-ball season in the McComb Dixie Youth Baseball program — then did not play baseball the next two years.
“I was just too scared to play,” she said.
That changed this season when Megan decided it was time for her to return to the diamond.
Her first challenge came in preseason tryouts.
“I was scared of the ball, but I wasn’t scared of any bats,” she said. “I was trying out and I got hit in my left side with the ball. I started laughing after I got hit. It just tickled.”
Turns out, getting hit was a blessing for Megan, who said she is no longer afraid of the ball.
Megan now plays the outfield for the 11-to-12-year-olds Fortenberry Diesel team in the Summit Dixie Youth Baseball program.
Team head coach Altney Cook said he could see a big change in McKenzie during a game two weeks ago.
“In our fourth game, Megan hit a shot to right-center field for a double,” he recalled.
“She was grinning all over. You could see every tooth she had.”
Since then, McKenzie has done nothing but improve. She went 3-for-3 for Fortenberry Diesel in its 17-13 loss to Coca-Cola on Friday night at the Windsor Gay Youth Complex.
“Megan has just been terrific,” Cook said. “In our first practice this season, she was real scared, real timid. But you could tell she wanted it. You could tell by the look in her eyes she wanted to do this. She wanted to play baseball.”
Dan McKenzie said his daughter has been an inspiration.
“She’s so athletic around the house. Having two brothers makes her so much stronger,” he said.
“She has the heart. As long as she has the heart, everything else will take care of itself.”
