Daniel Brito making return to Frontier Field where he nearly lost his life
Daniel Brito, the Triple-A baseball player who nearly lost his life in Rochester in July 2021, is coming back to town Thursday, Sept. 15 as a guest of the Rochester Red Wings.
The Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, Triple-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies, will be visiting Frontier Field for a six-game series and Brito, who is still a member of the organization as he battles his way back to full health, will be recognized before the game and then do an autograph session.
Brito was playing third base for Lehigh Valley when he had a seizure and collapsed at Frontier Field in the bottom of the first inning in the opening game of what was supposed to be a July 31 doubleheader.
After laying in foul territory wide of the third-base line for about 20 minutes as he was attended to by paramedics, he was transported to Strong Memorial Hospital where doctors saved his life.
Brito was diagnosed as having an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) which is defined as a tangle of blood vessels in the brain. It was something the native of Venezuela was born with, and when it ruptured on that night, not only did it cause the seizure that those who were in attendance witnessed, but also a brain bleed, a combination that, somehow, did not kill Brito.
Dr. Thomas Mattingly was the neurosurgeon on call the night Brito was admitted and he performed the first of several surgeries. Once Brito was admitted to the intensive care unit, Dr. Debra Roberts, a neurologist who is the Neuro ICU medical director at Strong, and other members of her team joined the case and shepherded Brito through a multistage, two-month journey that ended with his discharge.
Since leaving Rochester, Brito has gone thought several levels of rehab, and he is not giving up hope that he can someday play baseball again. The Phillies extended his contract while he was in a coma at Strong, and continue to support him.
Brito, who was tossing a ball in his hospital bed within a month of his first surgery which caught even Dr. Mattingly by surprise, has progressed to the point where he is weightlifting, hitting, and fielding at facilities in Columbus, Ohio where he and his fiance live.
Brito, alongside the University of Rochester Medical Center team, will throw out the ceremonial first pitch pre-game. Afterward, Brito, Mattingly and Dr. Webster Pilcher, chairman of URMC’s department of neurosurgery, will speak to reporters, after which Brito will sign autographs near the Red Wings Hall of Fame.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Daniel Brito former Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs infielder Frontier Field
