Boy, 7, dies after being hit by baseball

ATLANTA - A 7-year-old East Cobb boy died after being struck in the chest with a baseball. <br> <br> Nader Parman II was killed while playing in his front yard Friday. Doctors said the ball struck him precisely over his heart, triggering cardiac arrest. Nader was a first-grader at Mountain View Elementary School. <br> <br> ``So many variables have to fall in place for this fatal abnormal heart rhythm to occur,&#39;&#39; said Dr. Mark Link, associate professor of medicine at Tufts New England Medical Center in Boston. <br> <br> While some commotio cordis deaths have been caused by a blow from a hollow plastic bat, the most common cause is from being struck by a ball or puck during organized sports, doctors said. <br> <br> About five to 10 deaths such as Nader&#39;s are reported yearly, Link said, but the actual number of deaths due to commotio cordis may be double that. <br> <br> The boy&#39;s parents said Nader was playing with a 15-year-old neighbor when it happened. <br> <br> ``Looking out my door at any part of the day, there could be two kids or there could be 20 kids of all sizes and ages,&#39;&#39; said Sherri Parman, Nader&#39;s mother. <br> <br> The teen told Cobb County police he tossed a baseball in the air intending to hit a pop fly for the younger boy. Instead, the teen hit a line drive that struck Nader in the chest. <br> <br> Parman said her husband, Nader Parman, ran outside, carried the boy indoors and performed CPR. <br> <br> When a child collapses from commotio cordis, CPR is of little use, Link said. Saving a victim of commotio cordis requires defibrillation - shock treatments - within three minutes. CPR can extend that window by just a few minutes, he said. <br> <br> The teen, considered a ``big brother to a lot of kids in the neighborhood,&#39;&#39; was devastated by the accident, his parents said.

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