11-month-old in coma after suffering brain injury in car crash, mom says

CLEVELAND (WOIO/Gray News) - As a baby boy fights for his life after being critically injured in a car crash, his mother is praying for a miracle and demanding justice.

Tashae Williams says her 11-month-old son De-Mari is in an induced coma at Cleveland’s Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital. He suffered a severe brain injury in a car crash around 9:30 p.m. last Thursday, WOIO reports.

“I have to look at my son like this. I have to watch him like this every day,” Williams said. “It’s not fair that he’s laying up there.”

Williams says she was heading down St. Clair Avenue, coming up to east 82nd Street. The light was green, so she drove through it. At the same time, she said a woman in a black SUV tried turning left.

“Next thing I know, I was getting hit on the driver’s side on the front side of my car. All the air bags deployed. I definitely got hit with the air bag. My leg was busted a little,” Williams said.

Despite her own pain, the mother says she rushed to get De-Mari, who was in the back seat, out of the car as quickly as possible. Bystanders called 911.

“I could tell his breathing was very bad. He was breathing very shallow. He wasn’t responding to me. He was out of it,” she said.

Williams’ parents live nearby, so she ran with De-Mari to her dad down the street until help arrived. She said the woman who hit her was gone when she returned.

“She has altered my baby life,” she said. “I am just trying to take it day by day.”

Williams said she wants the driver to step up and face the consequences.

“She know who she is. Please just go turn yourself in because, if anything, you are making it worse. I would have respected you more if you stayed and took accountability for what you did,” she said.

De-Mari’s first birthday is Aug. 4. The planned celebrations may be altered due to his injuries.

Police are investigating the crash.

Copyright 2024 WOIO via Gray Local Media, Inc. All rights reserved.