THE LITTLE GIRL BREAKING GOLD COAST HEARTS
At just 22 months old, little Valkyrie Quinn died for 16 minutes. Now her parents need our help to give their baby girl every opportunity in life
“LOVE you, Daddy.”
They were the words that little Valkyrie Quinn would announce as her father Simon drove off to work in the morning.
At just 22 months old, they were her proudest achievement … but now, two years later, Simon has still never heard her say them.
Because just weeks after reaching this milestone, Valkyrie suffered a severe brain injury after clinically dying for a full 16 minutes.
It was a moment that every parent has experienced. That split second when your attention is diverted and your child, full of curiosity and cunning, slips your grip.
For almost all of us, it’s a moment where we manage to avert disaster … but break into a cold sweat thinking of what might have happened.
But for Jenaya and Simon Quinn, it did happen.
Simon had just answered a phone call from his terminally ill father and Jenaya was out of the room for less than a minute.
When she returned, Valkyrie was nowhere to be seen.
Unbeknown to her parents, despite being showered and ready for bed, Valkyrie had slipped on her gumboots, grabbed her handbag, unlocked the door and set out to explore.
What she found was the dam on the Mudgeeraba property.
Despite searching for Valkyrie just one minute after she disappeared, it took 15 long minutes to find her in the early dark of a July evening.
And when they did, she was floating face up in the water.
Thanks to her parents’ presence of mind and CPR skills, along with the incredible aid of paramedics, she was revived.
Ultimately, she spent the next nine months in hospital in a coma, and when she woke, testing showed she had experienced a severe hypoxia brain injury which caused level four cerebral palsy.
Life as Valkyrie knew it, as her parents Simon and Jenaya knew it, was forever changed.
Now, every day is a challenge.
There is never-ending paperwork, continuous appointments, understanding new diagnoses, trials of different prescriptions and the constant attention needed for a now almost-four-year-old who, somehow, still carries within her the same inquisitive, adventurous spirit.
For Simon and Jenaya, their full-time job is their daughter. Not just caring for her needs, but seeking and securing any and every opportunity that might help give back to Valkyrie any part of her prior self that she’s lost.
For Jenaya’s parents, their retirement plans have been put on hold as they seek to support their granddaughter. But there is hope. Stem cell therapy offers the possibility of regenerating some of the brain function that Valkyrie has lost. Yet it’s only available overseas – and at great expense.
Even without that, there is so much that this family needs to make every day better and brighter for their darling girl – from a safer backyard to a home deposit so their baby will always have somewhere safe to live.
And we can help. Already on 102.9 Hot Tomato, the breakfast team of Paul Gale, Emily Jade O’keeffe and David “Christo” Christopher have been raising donations for the Quinns, and the Bulletin is joining in too as part of this great big Gold Coast family.
“There are parts of her old self that still shine through. Her favourite colours are still pink and yellow,” says Jenaya.
“But everything is so very different. This is not the life she should have had and she is not the girl she would have been.
“She was so over-dramatic and charismatic. We were convinced she would be an actress or singer or dancer, she had so much personality and was such a go-getter.
“But we think that is part of what saved her. As far as we know, she is the only girl in the world to have gone without breathing for so long and at so young to survive.
“We just want to give her every chance to reach whatever her full potential is now.
“Simon and I have had to give up our jobs to be her fulltime carers, but I couldn’t imagine anyone else doing this job but us.
“Our lives are devoted to creating possibilities for her – to one day take a step, to do something new, to create another window of opportunity.
“No career could ever be as worthy or rewarding as that.”
Perhaps the hardest part for the Quinns is the not knowing.
No one knows what Valkyrie’s prognosis is or will be. As she gets older, her parents and doctors will be learning just as much as she is.
While it’s difficult to live in this constant state of suspension, it does at least leave a small space for hope.
And that’s where we come in, Gold Coast.
“It feels overwhelming to be the subject of so much love and kindness,” says Jenaya.
“But then, I know that I would do the same for anyone else’s child. We are a family like that, and we are so grateful for this community.
“What we can promise is that every cent donated will be used to give our daughter the best future possible.
“Even though it’s difficult that our life feels so up in the air, with everything a big question mark, it also leaves space for miracles.
“I’ll never stop hoping that we will hear her speak again. We just miss her voice so much.”
And maybe one day, with our help, Valkyrie’s daddy will finally hear those magic words with his own ears.
There are parts of her old self that still shine through.