WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES
Sometimes, there are medical marvels that just straight up blow your mind.
This is one of those marvels, but it’s also pretty gross.
After growing worried about her diminishing appetite and abdominal pain, the parents of a five-year-old girl have discovered that their daughter actually has a large hairball blocking her digestive system.
Doctors discovered the girl had a history of trichotillomania – a condition where people pull out their own hair and trichophagia – where they then eat the hair that’s been pulled out.
Previously, it has been reported that the little girl had found hair in her faeces and had once vomited a large ball of matted hair.
Girl, 5, has a huge HAIRBALL removed from her stomach http://t.co/orDzqsq6Qg pic.twitter.com/R5X7WE9lak
— Daily Mail Australia (@DailyMailAU) May 27, 2015
It wasn’t long before doctors found a large, firm, smooth mass in her abdomen that was incredibly swollen.
The Daily Mail reports that scans confirmed that the five-year-old had a bulk of hair in her stomach, which made it look as though the organ was solid and full of soft tissue.
Rapunzel Syndrome was the diagnosis, a rare condition in which a hairball is found in the stomach, with the tail in the colon area.
Ew.. RT ToggleSG: Doctor left speechless after 2kg hairball found in girl’s stomach http://t.co/WPeY4a0Qk0 pic.twitter.com/7DISdsFBZv
— Ling (@bambishim) April 13, 2015
According to the Daily Mail, doctors explain that the hair does not flow through the stomach and the bowels as their muscles contract, so it accumulates food and forms an enmeshed mass.
The worrying part is that as the hairball grows, it can cause ulcers, tear the stomach and bowel and block the digestive system.
#shocking … #doctors pull out 2kg #hairball from a girl’s #stomach in #zhoukou #china ; http://t.co/QztDIpY736 pic.twitter.com/4dcH1elwvL
— Olamide Olufadi (@its_olamz) April 8, 2015
The 125g mass was removed from the little girl’s stomach in an operation that took over 2 hours.
The little girl can reportedly now eat and drink again and has recovered well. She was also sent to behavioral therapy to help control her condition.
Source: Daily Mail
