PAWTUCKET, R.I. – U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy was hit in the face with a hammer when an entrepreneur, demonstrating shock absorption, accidentally sent the hammer's head flying at Kennedy mouth.
Kennedy received six stitches in his bottom lip after the incident on Wednesday during an economic development meeting, his spokeswoman Robin Costello said.
The entrepreneur, Matt Kriesel of Wisconsin, produces a shock-absorbing gel used in sports-shoe inserts, tennis rackets and horse saddles. He was hitting some gel with a hammer to demonstrate how it reduces vibration when the hammer's head flew off.
"The congressman is a class act; he didn't make a fuss," said Michael McMahon, the executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corp. who attended the meeting.
Kennedy was bleeding, so his staff took him to Memorial Hospital in Pawtucket, where he got the stitches, Costello said.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox