Matt Imhof, a Philadelphia Phillies prospect who was the organization's second-round pick in 2014, has lost his right eye in an absolutely crazy accident. Imhof posted the above photo to Instagram with a lengthy caption explaining what happened. Imhof, 22, said a large piece of metal hit him in the head, breaking his nose and two orbital bones and causing him to lose vision in his right eye.
Imhof, a 6-foot-5 lefty, was rushed to the emergency room and then transferred to one of the top eye care facilities in the world.
"The doctors informed me that the damage to my eye was extreme and essentially that my eye had been crushed like a grape," Imhof wrote. "The doctors told me they were going to do everything possible to reconstruct it but in all likelihood I would never regain sight in my right eye."
Imhof had a surgery that was "somewhat" successful, but it didn't fix the problem. Imhof talked it over with his family and decided to have his eye removed and a prosthetic eye put in.
"This decision was not an easy one to make but to me it seemed like the right one so on Tuesday afternoon I went forward with the surgery," Imhof wrote.
ESPN reports Imhof "was taking part in a routine stretching regimen after a game at Brevard County (Florida) when a piece of equipment malfunctioned and he was struck in the right eye."
He is currently in Miami recovering from surgery and though "this has been the hardest week of [his] life," Imhof says he is doing well.
"I just wanted to write this message to let everyone know that even though I suffered some bad luck, I'm not dead," Imhof wrote. "I'm gonna be alright, I'm gonna persevere, and I'm gonna succeed. It takes more than this to bring me down."
Shout out to you, Matt. This is unbelievably bad luck. We're pulling for you to recover to top pitching form and one day make the big leagues.
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