8yo Girl Has Giant Hairball Removed From Stomach

This footage shows a giant hairball inside an eight-year-old girl’s stomach before medics spent more than 13 hours removing it.

The hairball comes after the youngster surnamed Zhu was diagnosed with a psychological disorder known as pica, which is characterised by an appetite for substances such as hair, metal, glass, soil or even faeces.

Video Credit: AsiaWire

On 25th May she was admitted to Xi’an Daxing Hospital, which is in Shaanxi Province in north-western China, under the care of head gastroenterologist Doctor Lin Tao.

Credit: AsiaWire
The hairball being removed from the girl’s stomach

The girl presented with a hardened object in her stomach and would vomit whenever she ate or drank anything.

Doctor Lin said: “We performed a gastroscopy and discovered a solid ball of hair in her stomach.

“It started in her stomach and reached the tip of the duodenum. It was very long – about 11 centimetres (4.3 inches), and nearly 6 centimetres (2.3 inches) thick.”

The child’s mother revealed that she had first noticed her daughter’s appetite for hair when she was just three years of age. They brought her to a specialist but were unable to find a cure.

“When we first discovered her habit, we tried to stop her and educate her, but then she never did it in front of us,” the mum said.

Credit: AsiaWire
The hairball removed from the girl’s stomach

The girl revealed she would pluck single strands of hair off her bed and swallow them.

Doctor Lin said: “Her parents did not want her to undergo surgery because of the physical trauma it would’ve caused her body. It would’ve left a scar on her abdomen.

“We decided to cut it out a little bit at a time. We would cut a small piece off and removed endoscopically it.”

Starting on 27th May, the girl underwent multiple procedures over the course of just 10 days to have a total of 225 grams of hair removed – enough to fill an entire A4 piece of paper.

Lin revealed: “We performed four procedures in total, the longest of which lasted 13 hours.”

Credit: AsiaWire
The girl in hospital after her procedure

Lin said he broke nine snare loops and three forceps in the process.

He medic said: “It is very difficult for hair to be digested. It’s very tough. 

“Pica has both psychological and physiological causes. She may be feeling lonely or neglected.

“It may also be a response to her body lacking a certain nutrients, causing her body to push her to ingest unusual supplements.”

According to reports, it was the largest hairball ever removed from a child under the age of 10 in mainland China.


To find out more about the author, editor or agency that supplied this story – please click below.
Story By: John FengSub-EditorJoseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report


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