Doctors remove 1.2kg hair ball from 16-year-old girl's stomach

Ananova ^ | 06/30/2001

[mattdono]

Doctors in northern India have removed a 1.2 kg ball of hair from a 16-year-old girl's stomach.

The Dainik Ujala newspaper says doctors operated on Kiran Singh at a hospital in Dharampur near Shimla.

Her parents say she's pulled out her hair and swallowed it since early childhood.

Her father Ajit said: "No-one thought much of it initially. It was only when she came of age that she began to over-do the eating.

"Now the doctors have relieved her of her misery we hope she gives up the dreadful habit. Someone might just wonder whether we don't feed her enough at home."

Local doctor Shailendra Bisht said: "The habit of eating hair in children is usually indicative of stress arising from parental over-expectation. However, a thorough psychological evaluation of the girl is necessary to get to the root of the problem."

[mattdono]

is necessary to get to the root of the problem

It seems that the girl already got to the "root".

[rockfish59]

Wawncha git a har-kut?

[Paul Atreides]

There's no telling how big a hairball they'd find in Bubba's gut.

[johniegrad]

Bezoar alert!!

[Sally II]

1.2 kg? Can anyone translate that into American lbs. for me?

[Consort]

She had a brush with death.

[scholar]

Believe it or not this is not a terribly uncommon condition. It's called a trichobezoar. Tricho=hair and bezoar=concretion.

It is a psychological problem that causes these folks to chew on their hair and I really don't know what success there is in treating it.

[Psalm 73]

They should give her some grass to eat so she can hack-up the hairballs on a regular basis.
Cheaper than a hospital visit, the down-side is stepping on them in the middle-of-the-night enroute to the bathroom.

[denydenydeny]

Trichinobezoar bump.

[Consort]

...and I'll bet she was happy to part with it.

[Chemnitz]

Yuk. A kilo is about 2 pounds, so take 1.2 times 2 = 2.4 pounds. A lot of hair. Hard to digest.

[general_re]

A hair over 2 1/2 pounds. ;)

[mattdono]

I think that is about 2 pounds.

[TroutStalker]

2.64 pounds.

My sister, when she was teaching quite a few years ago had a girl in her class who did this. Apparently it was psychological problems.

[Anamensis]

I have a pair of scissors that could go a long way toward helping her out.

[general_re]

I don't suppose anyone's seen the cat lately?

[mattdono]

Sorry...forget to scroll </embarrasement>

[TADSLOS]

ACK!!

[Restorer]

1.2 kg = roughly 2.65 lbs.

[CdMGuy]

Solution - Shave her head, and other areas as well.