Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Housewife has giant 7lb hairball removed from her stomach after it left her barely able to swallow water

A 31-year-old woman had a hairball weighing almost 7lbs (3kg) from her stomach - which left her unable to eat or even take a sip of water---Surgeon Dr Hardeep Singh said: ‘Her stomach and intestines were filled with hair so there was no way she could’ve digested food or water. Whatever she consumed was not getting absorbed and she would vomit’

Surgeon Dr Hardeep Singh said: ¿Her stomach and intestines were filled with hair so there was no way she could¿ve digested food or water. Whatever she consumed was not getting absorbed and she would vomit¿

She had surgery to remove the 17cm wide mass of hair

The woman was diagnosed with Rapunzel syndrome, a rare condition in which a hairball (called a trichobezar) is found in the stomach, with its tail in the colon. She had surgery to remove the 17cm wide mass of hair

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
Unnamed woman was rushed to hospital with a severe stomach ache
Was unable to eat and vomited every time she took a sip of water
Eventually she admitted she had been eating her own hair for 20 years
Had an operation to remove the 7lb (3kg) mass which was 40cm long

By MADLEN DAVIES FOR MAILONLINE-16 May 2016

A 31-year-old woman had a hairball weighing almost 7lbs removed from her stomach - which had left her unable to eat or even take a sip of water.

The woman, from a small village in Punchkula, near Chandigarh, northern India, was admitted into a local government hospital last week with severe stomach pain.

After scans revealed the mass she admitted she had been pulling out and eating her own locks for two decades, doctors discovered.

She couldn't let anything pass through her lips without immediately vomiting.

After surgery to remove the 3kg ball of hair, doctors were astonished to find it was 40cm long - and she is now finally able to eat proper meals again.

Dr Hardeep Singh, 30, a general surgeon said: ‘When she came to hospital we asked her if she had a habit of chewing her hair to which she said no.

'But when we got her ultrasound done, it confirmed a huge mass in her stomach that demanded immediate attention.’

After surgery last Friday, the mother-of-three confessed she had been chewing her hair since she was nine years old.

Dr Singh said: ‘Her stomach and intestines were filled with hair so there was no way she could’ve digested food or water.

'Whatever she consumed was not getting absorbed and she would vomit.’

Dr Singh said he’d never seen anything like it. ‘It was around 40 cm long. She is now having proper meals without any issue and will be discharged from hospital after three days once her stitches are removed.’

And after the mother's hair-eating addiction was revealed, one of her children went on to confessed to eating large quantities of cement every day.