Stomach-churning find after teen rushed to emergency room
WARNING – GRAPHIC IMAGES: Doctors have made a stomach-churning find in a teenage girl who was rushed to the emergency room.
The girl, 17, passed out and had to be taken to hospital after experiencing stomach pain for five months, according to her case in the British Medical Journal Case Reports.
A mass was found in her abdomen which doctors called an example of a “giant” trichobezoar also known as a hairball in her gastrointestinal system.
Doctors removed the mass and discovered it was a large clump of hair 48cm long.
The teen was diagnosed with Rapunzel syndrome, which doctors said is rare.
Rare syndrome occurs when person ingests hair
Rapunzel syndrome occurs when someone ingests hair and it becomes lodged in their intestine.
“The patient had an uneventful recovery with psychiatric review prior to discharge,” doctors wrote.
She had earlier been diagnosed with trichotillomania which is a mental health condition resulting in people pulling out their own hair and trichophagia which involves eating it.
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