Shelly Hendriks tells of daughter Skye’s brave fight for life

A Hervey Bay mum is keeping a bedside vigil as her daughter remains in a coma after she was struck by a car. Here’s how you can help Skye and her family.

Skye's mum Shelly Hendriks started a Go Fund Me page as the family gathers around the injured young girl.

The mother of a young girl who was critically injured after being struck by a car in Hervey Bay has asked the community for support as the family remains by her side in hospital.

Shelly Hendrik’s 12-year-old daughter Skye was hit by a car last month.

Police were called to Pialba-Burrum Heads Rd at Dundowran about 12.15am on December 17, following reports of a traffic crash involving a vehicle and pedestrian.

Skye was taken to Hervey Bay Hospital in a critical condition before being flown to Queensland Children’s Hospital.

Ms Hendriks said the incident had turned her family’s lives “upside down”.

“It feels like an absolutely horrible nightmare that we just can’t seem to wake up from,” Ms Hendriks wrote a Go Fund Me page set up to help the family.

“I witnessed my beautiful daughter Skye, our gorgeous girl, my best friend, get hit by a car at high speed.

“She was taken to Hervey Bay Hospital and flown directly to Brisbane Children’s Hospital in a very critical condition.

“Skye suffered intense injuries to her abdomen, severe facial injuries and a traumatic brain injury and brain trauma.

“The next 19 days were spent in (the) Paediatric Intensive Care Unit and she was breathing through a tracheostomy tube, breathing tube.”
Ms Hendriks said her daughter underwent two brain surgeries, extensive abdominal surgery, facial reconstruction and “many, may ups and downs and hurdles along the way”.

But Skye had now had her breathing tube removed and was breathing on her own, Ms Hendriks said.

“She has been transferred to the High Acute Neurological Ward, a ward for patients with acute brain injuries,” she said.

Skye's mum Shelly Hendriks started a Go Fund Me page as the family gathers around the injured young girl.

“This is so her body and brain can heal slowly so she may wake over the next few weeks, so the specialists can see what she can physically and mentally do.

“Following this, Skye will then need to spend a large amount of time, possibly months, in the Intensive Rehabilitation Ward at Brisbane Children’s Hospital.

“We are only at the beginning of this very long and difficult journey and Skye has fought very hard to stay with us.

“She will keep fighting and we, her family, will keep fighting right by her side.

“However long it takes we will be there, next to her, to get her through this.

“Skye needs her family to be with her, in Brisbane.

“Myself, her father Daniel and her siblings need to be here every single day, away from our family home and work.

“She needs us to be by her side, supporting her, loving her and caring for her as well as supplying any equipment she may need.

“We have set up this Go Fund Me page to ask any family, friends, co-workers or community members that if you have anything at all that you can contribute to assist our family so we may support our daughter, it would mean the absolute world to us.

“We need your help.”

To make a donation to the Go Fund Me page, click here.