{"id":400903,"date":"2026-09-15T23:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T23:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/400903\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T23:00:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T23:00:07","slug":"she-was-just-a-baby-family-mourns-4-year-old-killed-in-broward-crash-pray-for-2-still-critical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/400903\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018She was just a baby\u2019: Family mourns 4-year-old killed in Broward crash, pray for 2 still critical"},"content":{"rendered":"

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. \u2014 A South Florida family is devastated following a tragic weekend car crash in Deerfield Beach<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Killed in the crash was 4-year-old Christine Celine Varella Mejia, and two other children, 8-year-old Abraham Medrano Mejia and 7-year-old Yamilah Claudio, are now fighting for their lives at Broward Health Medical Center. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe was just a baby, she didn\u2019t deserve this,\u201d said Gabriella Derras, Meija\u2019s aunt. \u201cI still remember the last time I talked with her. She wanted me to take her to Disney, and I promise her and I didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christine Mejia, her parents, an adult cousin and two underage cousins were heading to get pizza Saturday night. <\/p>\n

Behind the wheel was Christine Mejia\u2019s mother, who was driving them along the 4100 block of west Hillsboro Boulevard in Deerfield Beach and as she was about to make a U-turn to head westbound when traffic investigators said their car was hit by a motorcycle. <\/p>\n

The motorcyclist has been identified as 18-year-old Maxwell Patel, who died at the scene. <\/p>\n

The impact caused the Nissan to flip over and the car was left mangled. The adults were all taken to the hospital and two of the surviving children are in critical condition.<\/p>\n

Abraham Mejia\u2019s sister, Katherine Medrano, said her little brother is in a medically induced coma.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe suffered multiple fractures around his whole body, he had severe brain trauma, he had to have brain surgery,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Derras said Yamilah Claudio also suffered multiple injuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had really bad head trauma,\u201d she said. \u201cAt the moment just praying and hoping she makes it and gets better, she\u2019s also in a medically induced coma.\u201d <\/p>\n

The family said they are leaning on to their faith and trying to stay strong during this very difficult time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is every parent\u2019s worst possible nightmare, losing your child, having your child in a comatose state, needing to have brain surgery, having your cousin in another room next to yours and not knowing what is going on with them in their little bodies,\u201d said Medrano. \u201cThey are strong children and they are going to make it, I\u2019m praying everyday.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Broward Sheriff\u2019s Office said they are investigating the circumstances surrounding the crash. <\/p>\n

Family members have created a GoFundMe page to help with funeral expenses<\/a> for Christine Mejia, and a separate GoFundMe page to assist with hospital expenses<\/a> for the children who are still recovering. <\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. \u2014 A South Florida family is devastated following a tragic weekend car crash in Deerfield…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-400903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}