Shania Navarrette seeks donations for her recovery from dog attack
A vicious dog attack when she was barely five years old ripped half of her scalp off of her head.
Throughout her young life, Shania Navarrette, now 13, has learned to cope with the slow process of getting her hair to grow back in place. A large bald spot remains on the right side of her head that stretches from the back of her head to the front.
Skin grafts were taken from her butt cheeks and sewn over her skull when she was little.
Periodically, "extenders" are inserted under her new scalp that inflate as tall as a soda can and stretch her skin so that when these extenders are removed, the doctors can pull the skin with hair follicles in it further over her bald spot.
It's a slow process involving many trips to Stanford University's Lucille Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto. Each trip costs her family at least $80 for gas and meals. These trips can happen up to three times a week and are a hardship on her family, she said.
She's had 12 surgeries to insert the extenders followed by up to 10 outpatient visits each and another surgery to remove the extenders.
Her mother, Maria Navarrette, 48, used to raise money for these trips through car washes but that type of fundraiser is no longer possible due to the drought in California.
Shania invites the public to donate money for her continued recovery from this devastating attack.
The attack
She was attacked by a pit bull while attending a neighbor's birthday party when she was a little girl.
"I had a piece of candy and the dog wanted it," she said. "I teased the dog and he bit my finger and took the candy."
Then the pit bull jumped on her, she said, and she remembers crying.
"My dad picked me up and took me to the ambulance," she said. "That's all I remember."
Later, she woke up to a Popsicle.
"I just have a bald spot and it will be fixed," she said. "There's no reason to complain about it."
She said she doesn't waste time wishing it wasn't there.
"I know my mom and everyone else around me cares," she said.
When she was little, she was given a wig from Locks of Love, but when she'd go outside for recess, she would hang her wig on the coat rack before she'd go out to play, her grandmother said.
She was bullied
Throughout Shania's education, she preferred not to cover her head with a wig, scarf or hat because it feels better without a covering.
Her grandmother, Virginia Navarrette, 66, said Shania was bullied at school. One time in the third grade, students wrote on her head with a pen and another time with a pencil.
"She's come home crying but she'll go right back there," she said.
When she first attended Live Oak Middle School, she didn't know very many students.
"No one knew me or my head," she said.
The mean kids started to bother her.
"They think they're tough," she said.
So she talked to all of the sixth grade classes about what happened to her and she made a lot of friends going from class to class. The next year, she talked to the whole student body.
"If I can speak to the school, then no one would be mean to me anymore," she said.
She stood on stage with her parents and the school principal, Tracey Jenkins, as she spoke to Live Oak students. A slide show showed her at the hospital at various stages of treatment.
It made the whole student body aware that she looks different and why, Jenkins said.
"The outcome was exactly what we intended," he said. "We wanted to inform the student body so Shania would not be the focus of ridicule."
Her presentation became an anti-bullying campaign and it worked. When she's in school, she plays the bass drum in the marching band, has a lot of friends and attends many parties.
She's currently taught at home by a teacher from the district who comes to her house through the beginning of May following a recent surgery.
Need help?
Does your nonprofit need specific help? We want to know about it. Email Inspire@visaliatimesdelta.com or call Inspire reporter Teresa Douglass at 735-3289. Talk to us on our website, www.VisaliaTimesDelta.com/section/inspire, or on the Visalia Times-Delta and Tulare Advance-Register's Facebook page.
How to help
To donate money, go to any Tucoemas Credit Union and ask to donate to the account for Shania and Maria Navarrette.