Thank you for being a fan: Golden Girls keep 10-year-old hospital patient in stitches

Laughter is always the best medicine. Just ask 10-year-old Quinn Schmiedendorf.

After spending two months in the Janeway Children's Hospital, Quinn needed something to get her mind off the painful surgeries and treatments she was facing.

That distraction came in a DVDof The Golden Girls, a 1990s television comedy series about four single senior women,left in Quinn's hospital room.

It was a gift that soon gave birth to a Golden Girls obsession.

"I just love it," said Quinn. "I'm on the sixth season for the ninth time They are hilarious. It's just pure entertainment."

Travelled down the road and back again

Quinn, who lives in St. John's, was born with spina bifidaand a tetheredspinal cord that causesthe twisting of her spine.

She also has a condition unrelated to her spina bifida that results in her small stature. Both have resulted in regular hospital visits and surgeries since she was just seven weeks old.

Her latest visit was the result of complications from spinal surgery that resulted in a serious spinal fluid leak.

I want to see the new RueLaRueCafe. It has all the memorabilia from the Golden Girls and it serves cheesecake.- Quinn Schmiedendorf

For Quinn's mom, Kim Schmiedendorf, The Golden Girls became an important part of her daughter's recovery.

"Quinn would just sit and laugh," she said. "It was such a hard go and it just seemed to take it all away. She was just funny little Quinn again."

The age difference between the Quinn and the actors made no difference.

"The nurses would come in and she'd start talking in the Sophia voice it was hysterical."

And the card attached would say

The last living cast member of The Golden Girls, Betty White, 95,recently surprised Quinn with an autographed picture. It was a plan hatched by the Janeway Children's Hospital Foundation and the Children's Miracle Network.

The picture is now framed and in a place of honour in Quinn's bedroom.

While the television show was set in Miami, many fansare flocking to New York City to get their Golden Girls fix, because acaf based on the show opened in Manhattan earlier this year.

"I want to see the new Rue LaRue Cafe. It has all the memorabilia from The Golden Girls and it serves cheesecake."

That trip will have to wait until next year. Quinn is scheduled for more surgeries in January at the Shriner's Hospital for Children in Montreal, where she will have a steel rod inserted into her spine.

"We'll probably be there for two and half, possibly three months," said her mother, fighting back tears. "Hopefully after that, we'll be good."

Until then, Quinn saidshe will continue to enjoy the summer and will undoubtedly complete The Golden Girls series for the ninth time. She might even throw a party and invite everyone she knows.