Now A Teen, Michigan Girl Mauled By Raccoon As A Baby Continues Recovery
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - A western Michigan girl mauled by a pet raccoon when she was a baby has undergone another reconstructive procedure.
The Detroit Free Press reports that 14-year-old Charlotte Ponce was back at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak Thursday to add extra tissue to her ear, cheek, nose and upper lip. This added to the more than a dozen surgeries she's already had since the incident. In 2014, she got a new ear.
The latest procedure will be her first as a teenager and her eighth with pediatric plastic surgeon Dr. Kongkrit Chaiyasate.
Chaiyasate told the newspaper Charlotte hopes to get her ears pierced after healing from surgery.
Charlotte was 3-months-old when she was attacked by a raccoon that climbed into in her crib when she was left unattended at her family's home in Ravenna, near Muskegon. She barely survived the mauling, and spent months in the hospital before being released.
The animal had attacked her face, eating away her nose, right ear, part of her lips and cheekbones.
Charlotte and her brother were adopted by their great-aunt and great-uncle in 2005 after Michigan terminated the biological parents' rights.
The public can follow Charlotte's journey and offer words of support at this link.
© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.