Cubs scout’s son on life support after being hit by baseball

The teenaged son of a Cubs baseball scout has been placed on life support to treat profuse bleeding after he was hit in the face with a baseball several days ago.

Jason Lockhart, the son of former Major Leaguer Keith Lockhart, was hit June 17 while crossing home plate at a South Carolina youth baseball tournament.

Jason, 15, was originally given stitches to treat his injury. But two days after the incident, he began to bleed profusely when doctors tried to remove packing from his nose. He received a CT scan, which showed that he not only suffered a nose fracture, but also had a tear inside his nose.

Jason was placed on life support Friday and put in a paralytic state at Scottish Rite Hospital in Atlanta to help stop any movement that would encourage or cause more bleeding, according to a Facebook post by his older sister, Sydney.

In Twitter and Facebook direct messages on Monday, Sydney Lockhart told the Chicago Sun-Times, “We are just amazed with the outpouring of love, support, and prayers for our family and our sweet Jason. People come together in these tough times, and the power of prayer is unlike anything else.

“Keep the prayers coming. And please pray for all the sweet kiddos and the families back here with us. We all need them.”

Sydney Lockhart wrote Sunday night in a Facebook post that her family was “tired but hopeful.”

“The doctors decided to take Jason into surgery to do an endovascular embolization today,” she wrote. “They went into both arteries on each side of his nose and cut off the blood supply. . . . The surgery was a couple of hours long and Jason is now resting still on the ventilator to keep his vitals monitored and keep him comfortable.”

Keith Lockhart — who played the majority of his 10 Major League seasons as an infielder for the Atlanta Braves and has been a scout for the Cubs since 2011 — tweeted Sunday that doctors had located three areas of bleeding and stopped the flow of blood to them.

Jason was to go into surgery again on Monday afternoon, but doctors decided to postpone the operation,” Sydney Lockhart posted on Facebook.

“They are backing Jason off several medications and his body is responding a bit slower than anticipated,” she wrote. “They will reschedule for tomorrow. There has been no bleeding since yesterday’s surgery (YAY) so we are hoping it was successful, though we are remaining watchful.”

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