Doctors were puzzled when one teenager couldn’t drink water without being violently ill, but were shocked when they discovered the root of her problem – a 9lb hairball.
Doctors treating Ayperi Alekseeva uncovered a massive hairball blocking the teenager’s digestive system, which was causing her extreme dehydration and malnourishment.
So how did a 9lb hairball form in her stomach? The 18-year old girl admitted that she chewed the tips of her hair, and even ate hair and bits of wool she found on the carpet at home.
The teenager from Kyrgyzstan was taken to a hospital in the capital city of Bishkek, where doctors said 50 years of medical records had never presented anything close to the girl’s fate.
Prof Bahadir Bebezov, who performed the life-saving surgery on Ayperi, said:
“The parents brought her in after she started losing weight, and she couldn’t eat anything. By the time we got her, should could not even drink water. We realised we needed to operate immediately.
“It was actually the only alternative, nothing else would solve the problem. In fact, her stomach was so badly swollen from hair and bits of wool from the carpet that it literally just oozed out soon as the wall of the stomach was cut.”
Ayperi is now recovering in hospital, and is due to be discharged by the end of the week.
Story via Metro UK
