Toddler Missing Half Her Heart Gets Surprise 'Snow Party' After She Couldn't Go on Vacation
A little girl couldn’t go on a snowy vacation with her family due to an ongoing health condition, so local officials near her Arizona hometown brought the vacation to her instead.
Quinn Walker was surprised with a “snow party” by the Casa Grande police and fire departments on Jan. 3 after doctors told her parents that the 2 year old would be unable to join them on their trip to Flagstaff, Good Morning America reported.
“They said not this year — she was too sick to do it,” Quinn’s mom Sandee Walker recalled to the outlet.
From the time she was born in 2017, Quinn has suffered from a condition called hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), the Casa Grande Fire Department said on Facebook.
The birth defect, which develops during pregnancy, causes the left side of a baby’s heart to not form correctly and prevents normal blood flow through the heart, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
So far, Quinn has had two open-heart surgeries and has another procedure scheduled in April, GMA reported. Because of how severe her condition is, cardiologists advised Sandee and her husband Adam Walker to hold off on the wintery family trip.
Heartbroken, Sandee told GMA that she posted on the #QuinnStrong Facebook page, where she has documented the toddler’s journey with HLHS, and revealed to all 1,386 followers that “we couldn’t go and we were was upset about it.”
One of those followers happened to work with Adam at the Casa Grande Fire Department and mentioned to Corporal Mike Bejaran with the Casa Grande Police Department that they should do something special for Quinn so that she could enjoy some family fun at their Gilbert home without risking her health.
“When Corporal Mike Bejaran heard that firefighter Adam Walker’s two-year-old daughter Quinn couldn’t make it up north to play in the snow, he took action,” CGPD wrote in a press release.
The CGFD noted in their release that officer Melissa Ramos helped Bejaran make “the magic happen.”
Together, the Casa Grande first responders managed to bring in five tons of snow to Quinn’s driveway, creating an unforgettable “snow party” surprise for the toddler and her brothers.
“We all love snow and she can’t go to the snow obviously because of the oxygen and her medical conditions and it’s just the right thing to do,” Bejarano told NBC affiliate KPNX.
Opening their door on that early January day, the Walkers were astonished to see the snowy surprise.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Sandee recalled to the Phoenix-based outlet.
The children couldn’t wait to get into the snow and spent the day sledding, making snow angels and a snowman, and having snowball fights, according to GMA.
Though Quinn needed to be connected to an oxygen tank during the outdoor activity, that didn’t stop her and her family from enjoying the moment.
“She has to be on oxygen while she plays, but we’ll take it,” Sandee told KPNX. “Just trying to soak up as many memories as we can.”
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“She had the time of her life all morning,” she added to GMA. “It’s definitely hard that my daughter is so sick that people come out and do stuff like this for us, but I’m so grateful for the community we have.”
Sandee also raved about the magical surprise on Quinn’s Facebook page, noting how excited her daughter was to spend time with her family outdoors before her upcoming surgery.
“This was the BEST day ever!” she wrote. “So many amazing people came together to have snow made in our driveway for Quinn! We can’t take her to the snow so the snow came to her! She loved it.”
“The snow hasn’t melted yet and we are still soaking up as much snow fun as we can,” she wrote in a follow-up post featuring photos of Quinn smiling. “My beautiful little snow angel ❄️”
