CHICAGO -- A Cook County judge on Wednesday approved an $11.5 million settlement on behalf of the parents of a boy born brain-damaged and with cerebral palsy four years ago at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, according to the plaintiff’s attorneys.

Cook County Circuit Court, Law Division Presiding Judge William D. Maddux approved the settlement against Northwestern Memorial, a staff member and Gynecologic Specialists of Northwestern, for allegedly failing to deliver Joshua Radis in a timely fashion despite indications he was not tolerating labor, according to a release from the Corboy & Demetrio law firm.

On May 15, 2003, Stefanie Radis was admitted to Northwestern Memorial to deliver her second child and was taken to labor and delivery, the release said. Labor proceeded appropriately until several minutes after Radis started pushing and fetal monitor tracings indicated the baby was not tolerating labor.

Physicians and nurses attempted to expedite the delivery by using a vacuum extractor to bring the baby's head down farther, but the vacuum was removed after eight minutes because the doctor believed with one or two more pushes, the baby would be delivered, according to the release. But the baby, Joshua Radis, was not delivered until the fifteenth push, some 31 minutes later on May 16, and by that time, he was brain-damaged and now suffers cerebral palsy.

David R. Barry Jr., attorney for the family, said in the release it was a case where "healthcare providers exercised poor judgment and it changed the course of a child's life as well as that of his family. The providers believed the baby would be delivered through Stefanie's pushing efforts, but failed to react when it became clear by the third or fourth push that something was wrong."

The 8-pound Joshua was being pushed by a mother who encountered a shoulder dystocia during her first delivery of a baby weighing 6 pounds, and the “doctors and nurses just got seduced by the prospect of vaginal delivery. They kept thinking the next push would be the one, missing the realities of the size of the baby and the mother's pelvis,” Barry said in the release.

Funds from the settlement will give Joshua the best chance to lead a productive life, he said.

Northwestern Memorial Hospital will pay $9.5 million toward the settlement, and the other defendants -- Dr. Lauren F. Streicher and Obstetric and Gynecologic Specialists of Northwestern -- will pay $2 million, according to the release.

Copyright 2007, Sun-Times News Group