Operation eases teenager’s life who had 2kg hairball in her stomach

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In a gruesome moment, doctors have removed a massive 2 kilogram hairball, the size of a melon, from stomach of a teenage girl in India.  

The operation has relieved her life from a constant pain as she could not even eat a meal at ease.

A resident of Indian district Dheradun, Aakansha Kumari, 16, had been eating her own hair for years but her parents only noticed it after her weight plummeted to more than 10 kg.

She was facing problems when eating anything and kept vomiting. When she visited doctors and after they performed an x-ray it was revealed that a massive hairball was occupying over 80 percent of her stomach.

The doctors were astounded when they pulled the lump of tangled hair from her belly and diagnosed her with trichophagia. Trichophagia is a condition in which people can’t keep from eating their hair.

According to a report in Daily Mail, Aakansha Kumari had an addiction of eating her hair and had been doing it for the past several years. Her addiction left her unable to eat and even caused her to throw out frequently.

Gastro surgeon Dr Abhay Kumar with the help of his team removed the hairball in an open surgery at Doon Medical College and Hospital in Dehradun.

He said: “The hairball occupied 250 ml to 300 ml of space in the stomach. And this was causing her to lose interest in eating.

“The surgery was challenging because we had to extract the hairball in one go.

“We couldn’t do it piece by piece and risk dropping strands of hair in the body cavity as it would lead to further complications.

“The girl is doing much better after surgery.”

Father of the patient, Satish Chandra, there was a visible lump on her stomach before the operation.

He added: “My daughter is looking much healthier and happier now.”

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