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$1.55M For Family Of Boy Hit By Branch

CHICAGO (CBS/WBBM) -- The City Council Finance Committee is recommending approval of a $1.55 million settlement for a 4-year-old boy who suffered brain damage from a falling parkway tree branch.

As WBBM Newsradio 780 Political Editor Craig Dellimore reports, city Corporation Counsel Mara Georges says the accident occurred on the windy day of March 31, 2006, in the 9300 block of South Elizabeth Street, where city crews had previously trimmed tree branches.

LISTEN: Newsradio 780 Political Editor Craig Dellimore reports

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Jalen Raggs, then 4, was just getting out of his grandmother's car at the time, when a branch hit him.

Jalen's grandmother, Arenda Ellen, told CBS 2's Pamela Jones at the time that she heard a crack as the tree fell, but couldn't get him the boy out of the way quickly enough.

"By the time I got to him to move him, the tree had already knocked him down and he was lying in the grass, not moving," Ellen said on the day of the accident.

Jalen suffered a fractured skull, and, doctors say, permanent brain damage.

"He has been with a permanent left-foot drop and a slight limp. His experts have also opined that as a result of the head injury, he's fallen behind from his peers in academic-related and verbal ability," Georges said.

Georges says one problem for the city is that the tree branch that injured the child was destroyed. It should have been preserved as evidence.

Jalen's then-5-year-old cousin, Trenay Hayes, was also injured in the incident, suffering a cut under the chin.

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