ER nurse discovers fatal hit-and-run victim brought to hospital is her brother

A nurse learned that a dying victim of a hit-and-run was her younger brother as she and doctors unknowingly tended to him in a hospital emergency room.

Jenifer Medina was working Friday at Mission Hospital when paramedics brought in a young man who had been struck by a truck in San Juan Capistrano.

As doctors worked to save the 23-year-old man’s life, she and another co-worker looked for his identification, Medina told KNBC-TV. They found a wallet that looked familiar to Medina. As her co-worker opened the wallet, she saw her brother’s face.

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“My whole world collapsed as I did,” she wrote on a fundraising website. “The nurses I call my friends all came and held me as I cried on the hospital floor. They got me to a bed and I asked, ‘Is he gone? Yes, he’s gone.’”

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department said Cesar Andres Medina was hit about 10:10 p.m. Friday near Del Obispo Street and Paseo Carolina by a fleeing Dodge Ram truck. News reports say he was skateboarding.

The next day, deputies arrested Andrew Christopher Michaels, 19, of Laguna Niguel in connection with Cesar Medina’s death.

Investigators obtained information that led them to Michaels’ home in Laguna Niguel, where they found the Dodge.

Jenifer Medina said the impact of the crash sent her brother flying 20 feet into the air.

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“The driver hesitated to stop, but ended up taking off,” she wrote.

She is collecting donations on GoFundMe to help pay for his funeral.

“Andy had so many goals for his future and was taken from all of us too soon,” she wrote. “I just want all the people he loved and loved him to get a chance to say their last good byes to him.”

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