Nina’s recovery (From a Traumatic brain injury)

Hi world, my name is Stee Downes and I am Nina’s Dad.

Nina suffered a traumatic brain injury two years ago which left here blind, deaf , non verbal and unable to walk.

Through relentless therapies since then she has shown an amazing capacity for recovery after we were told she would never walk , talk or see again and were given a feeding machine . She has beat all the odds and her journey on the road to recovery continues.

Here’s the background to what happened to this beautiful little girl.

Two years ago on the evening of December 2nd 2023 I arrived home around 5pm with my two daughters Nina and Sienna. It seemed like an ordinary Friday evening but little did we know our lives and more importantly Nina’s”life would change course in a matter of minutes.

Nina seemed to have a little cold and and was looking for her bottle which normally meant she wanted to go to bed. We put her to bed for what we thought would be a little nap and she would be fine. She was just right down the hallway, we had a quick bite to eat and went back to check on her. To our shock, she was blue around the lips and there was vomit in the bed beside her. We immediately called the emergency services.

We were waiting over 30 mins and to our shock only the fire brigade arrived , there was no ambulance available… after another 20 mins  an ambulance arrived and we were still in pure panic and disillusion. Nina was then brought to Temple street children’s hospital in Dublin City centre. She was treated in ICU and immediately induced into a coma and a put on a ventilator and life support.

We spent 10 days in ICU by Nina’s side. Originally they thought she has a serious virus but on the 8th day they decided to do a CT scan and discovered she had suffered a Traumatic brain injury and we were completely devastated.

 It didn’t feel real and our family and Nina’s life was forever changed.

Nina was left unable to walk; see, hear and talk…it was heart wrenching to see and feel for our child.

We spent 6 months in hospital with her and began rehabilitation therapies within a month of the accident.

We then spent 3 months in the National Rehabilitation hospital which really accelerated Nina’s physical recovery and we would like to thank all the staff for their amazing work .

We have been relentless with Nina’s rehabilitation and she has responded amazingly to every therapy she has has tackled.

She is an amazingly brave and resilient little girl considering what she has been through. Her vision has improved greatly and her hearing has also returned. 

Physically she has improved hugely due to endless hours of physiotherapy .

There is no limits to what this amazing little girl can achieve and she deserves the best opportunities to continue her recovery.

Due to our inability to work full time anymore , as family we have exhausted our finances. 

In the early days we received amazing support and kindness from Westwood club members , the staff and the local community but we refuse to stop Nina’s journey to reach her best outcomes.

We are now exploring new therapies and methods of rehabilitation and would greatly appreciate if people could help Nina get to the next stage of her journey back to us.

Nina will be 4 at the end of this month and it would be amazing to be able to give her the advantage of specialised treatments which we will respond brilliantly too.

Above all Nina always has a smile , a laugh , a hug and a cuddle for everyone she meets … we would like to be able to give her the ability to connect with people and the world around her once again.

we love you Nina … you are an inspiration to us all x

the funding will be used for

TCDs polarisation treatment at a clinic in Poland

8 X 1 week long sessions

Travel and accomadtion costs

20000 euro 

Occupational therapy

Speech & Language therapy

Sensory integration

Vision therapy 

6000 euro  (1 year of therapies)

Normobaric chamber sessions

1000euro  for 8 post TCDS sessions

Independent medical report

(To establish if anything went wrong in Nina’s care when incident occurred as she was mis diagnosed )

3000 euro