Teenage Girl Undergoes Surgery To Have Five Foot Hairball Removed From Stomach

A teenage girl recently had a massive five-foot hairball removed from her stomach. According to Metro, a 15-year-old girl from India named Kavita Kumari became so ill her parents rushed her to a local hospital. She had reportedly showed signs of extreme fatigue and had completely lost her appetite.

Following a medical exam, doctors diagnosed Kumari with Rapunzel Syndrome, an extremely rare psychological condition where a person is addicted to eating their own hair and the hair of others, reports Opposing Views. It has been reported that Kumari had been ingesting hair for more than a year. Since the body cannot break down this type of protein filament, it gradually began to clog her digestive tract. The hairball had gotten so big, Kumari’s stomach had begun swelling.

This five foot long hairball used to be in #KavitaKumari's stomach,She has #RapunzelSyndrome and eats hair pic.twitter.com/YOc5fFihjU

— Noorani Tejani (@NooraniTejani) June 26, 2015

During an interview with Mail Online, the girl’s mother, Phool Devi, shared details about her daughter’s rare condition and how her health had drastically declined due to the rare disorder. She also cited when they started to notice distinct changes in her eating habits. Kumari’s condition had gotten so bad she couldn’t even digest water.

“She was so weak that we had assumed she would not survive another day,” Devi said. “We did not know she was in the habit of eating hair. Though I noticed many times that she plucked (sic) couple of strands from my hair and even her classmates told me she did the same with them. But I never took it seriously as I thought she was plucking their hair to tease them. I had no idea she was apparently eating hair.”

“We noticed she had not been eating properly — and whatever she ate, she would just throw it up,” Devi continued. “She would also complain of severe abdominal pain and was even unable to digest water. She was getting weaker with each passing day. We had taken her to several local doctors but none could find out the real problem.”

Once Dr. Lal Bahadur Sidharth made the discovery of the shocking five-foot hairball, he informed Kumari’s parents that it could be removed but there was no guarantee she would survive. She’s actually very lucky to be alive. Her mother has stated that she is eating again, and will attend counseling sessions to cope with her addiction.

“I’m so thankful to the doctors for saving her life,” her mother said.

[Image via YouTube Screen Capture]