Shakira’s story: Courage, care and the art of rebuilding

A boy in Shakira's math class used to stare at her and give her funny looks. But Shakira didn't let those looks affect her naturally friendly personality.

“I’m very talkative and I can go a very long time without taking a breath,” she chuckles. Despite his staring, I kept talking to him and saying, ‘Did you get the answer to that one?’ or “How was your weekend?’ After a few weeks, his looks stopped. I became familiar to him. And now – we’re good friends.”

18-year-old Shakira is used to getting strange looks from people. She's been getting them her whole life, and it's taught her an important lesson.

It's a lesson that was forced upon her when she was just 1-year-old, when Shakira lost half her nose plus a lot of skin and cartilage on her arms, hands, face and scalp – during a fire accident.

Since then, she’s needed countless procedures to improve both the form and function of her body.

A series of reconstructive procedures

When Shakira’s parents took her to see Alex Kane, M.D., Plastic and Craniofacial Surgeon at Children’s Health and Professor at UT Southwestern, in 2014, they were on a mission. They wanted to know if her then 6-year-old daughter could swim, do cannonballs and shower – without experiencing a very uncomfortable feeling of water going up her nose and into her airway.

Dr. Kane explained that the typical procedure to reconstruct a nose requires taking tissue from the forehead. But Shakira’s forehead skin was too thin to do this procedure.

So Dr. Kane and his team at the Fogelson Plastic Surgery and Craniofacial Center began to research other options.

An unprecedented treatment technique

What Dr. Kane came up with to help rebuild Shakira’s nose was novel – but not at all new.

His research led him to a technique from the Middle Ages called the Tagliacozzi flap, which uses a flap of skin from the upper arm and grafts it to the nose.

“It’s like an umbilical cord from the arm to the nose,” says Dr. Kane. “Because if you want to move tissue, you can’t separate it from the original location until it develops its own blood supply in the new location.”

For several weeks, Shakira needed to keep her arm in a bent position alongside her head, until the blood supply was sufficient to separate her arm from her nose.

Dr. Kane was amazed by young Shakira’s courage and strength and her parent’s trust in the team – especially given that the Tagliacozzi flap had never been done on a child so young.

Looking back, Shakira feels Dr. Kane has always had her best interest at heart.

Helping kids feel comfortable in their own skin

After a successful Tagliacozzi procedure, Shakira was able to jump in a pool without water flooding her nose, and she felt more comfortable with the appearance of her nose.

Dr. Kane and his team also reconstructed Shakira’s scalp (with a series of tissue expanders) to give her a more typical hairline because the front part of her scalp is not able to grow hair.

And, most recently, when the craniofacial team saw her nostrils were narrowing as her body grew, Dr. Kane enlisted the help of Jessica May, M.D., Plastic and Craniofacial Surgeon at Children’s Health and Associate Professor at UT Southwestern. Dr. May was able to strengthen her nasal lining and open her nostrils, which improved her appearance and her breathing.

“I wish I had a magic wand to wave and make kids feel whole and not have unwanted attention on the basis of their appearance,” says Dr. Kane. “But in the absence of a magic wand, and as things change and kids grow, we do everything we can to help a child feel comfortable in their own skin.”

Dr. Kane has attended Camp Amigo, a camp specifically for kids with facial differences, alongside Shakira every year since she was 7. In the last few years, she’s trained to become a camp counselor, which has been a natural fit, given her outgoing, sunny personality.

“My job at camp is to make sure that everyone is having fun, that they feel included and respected, and they remember: character comes before appearance,” she says.

Spreading courage and confidence

Over the course of their 12-year relationship, Dr. Kane has become like “a favorite, funny uncle” to Shakira. In the hallway outside his office, several pieces of Shakira’s artwork from different phases of her life are displayed in a glass case.

“Shakira has been through so much and has grown into a young woman with so much grace and courage. And her mom is deeply fierce and loving – in the best way possible. They are both wonderful, inspirational people,” says Dr. Kane

Like her sisters, Shakira plans to attend the University of Texas at Dallas to “remain close to Dr. Kane.”

Until then, she’s busy taking AP environmental science, literature and psychology, plus macroeconomics and astronomy (her favorite) – and volunteering on weekends at Sunday school. In her downtime, she loves to hang out with her family and friends, binge watch mystery shows and bond with her cat, Indy.

“Our cat is sassy, just like Shakira,” says her mom, beaming with pride.

Shakira decided to share her story because she’s learned that often, when you’re facing big challenges, it can feel like nobody else can possibly understand.

“But when you do hear about an experience that feels relatable, it can touch you deeply – and that can help you find the confidence to face your own problems head on,” she says.

Learn more

Our Pediatric Plastic and Craniofacial Surgery Program treats more than 10,000 patients a year with craniofacial differences using a combination of compassionate care, innovative treatment, and surgical and cosmetic restoration. Our team includes some of the world's leading specialists in every aspect of pediatric plastic surgery, including cleft lip and palate, craniofacial, vascular anomalies, and hand surgery.