Selena Zuniga may not be able to help others, but on Wednesday, she gave of herself.

The 14-year-old Albert Lea girl, who requires around-the-clock medical care, donated 19.5 inches of her hair to Locks of Love, a nonprofit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children under the age of 18 with medical hair loss.

These custom-fitted hair prosthetics are provided free of charge or on a sliding scale to children whose families meet the Locks of Love guidelines.

According to her mother, Letty Zuniga, Selena hadn’t had a haircut in about two years. Since she is wheelchair-bound, her long hair was difficult to wash and easily became tangled.

Diane Groth, Selena’s primary care nurse, gets her hair cut at Mary L’s Salon, so she inquired about someone coming to cut Selena’s hair in her home.

“I told them it’s not feasible for my client to get out,” she explained.

So Teresa “T.J.” Blanchard, an independent stylist at Mary L’s, came to the Zuniga home armed with scissors, cape, combs, a blow dryer and styling aids Wednesday.

Groth and Selena’s mother held the girl up while Blanchard cut and styled her hair.

“I’ve never had assistants before, Selena,” Blanchard said.

She ended up cutting off about twice the amount of hair she normally does in a Locks of Love haircut, she said.

Groth said Selena wasn’t happy about getting a haircut, but her hair grows extremely fast because of the nutritional supplements she takes.

“And culturally, they don’t get their hair cut until after their quinceañera (15th birthday),” Groth explained.

She reassured Selena that her hair would quickly grow back.

Blanchard added that they could add “bling-blings” to her hair for the celebration.

Selena was a happy, smiling child before a day in October of 2005, when she was 10 and her life changed.

Selena had been diagnosed with epilepsy when she was young, and took medication for the condition. That October day, she complained of not feeling well, so Letty arranged to have her sister stay with Selena while she went to work. The day went well; Letty was driving back to Albert Lea when Selena started to have a seizure. Letty pulled over to the side of the road and dialed 9-1-1. Selena was treated at the Owatonna Hospital, and was fine the next morning, her mother said.

But by later in the day, Selena complained that her legs hurt and she couldn’t walk on her own. Letty took her to Albert Lea Medical Center, where the emergency room staff decided to have her transported to Rochester. Selena was running a fever and suffered another seizure.

After receiving medication, Selena spent a good night in the intensive care unit, her mother said. She was transferred to the hospital’s general floor, but just two hours later, another seizure came.

“And they didn’t stop,” Letty said.

Doctors put her in an induced coma for three months. She was still having seizures, but the rest of her body didn’t show it. She was fed through a tube.

After getting off the medication that kept Selena in a coma, she spent three months on the general floor of the Rochester hospital, then she was able to come home to her mother’s care.

“Doctors still don’t know why this happened,” Letty said.

Selena requires around-the-clock care, and Letty and her sister, Ofelia Cortez, managed it for about six months. They now have in-home nursing care for Selena.

“Our goal is to keep her stable and keep her out of the hospital,” Letty said.

Selena can’t sit on her own and has no muscle tone. She’s fed through a tube. She is wheelchair bound and can’t go to a park like other children her age. She receives physical and occupational therapy in her home to help keep her flexible. Selena is only able to communicate with eye-blinks.