After passing out two times, the young girl, Sweety, was rushed to the hospital with a big bruise on her face. The doctors reportedly ruled out head trauma because of her enlarged abdomen and her complaints of belly pain. Per reports, a CT scan found a large mass inside her stomach and a tear in the lining. What the doctors discovered next left everyone stunned. The 17-year-old girl told the hospital staff that she had been feeling abdominal pain on and off for the past five months, but it got worse in the two weeks before she went to the hospital. She also previously suffered from trichotiIIomania and trichophagia, which are both mental health disorders.
TrichotiIIomania is a form of hair pulling that is characterized by an overwhelming urge to pluck one’s hair out, whereas Trichophagia is a type of eating disorder in which the afflicted person compulsively eats his or her hair. According to the computed tomography (CT) scan, there was a large mass inside distended stomach with a tear in the stomach wall. The teen was diagnosed with “RapunzeI syndrome,” which is when hairball extends into the intestine from the stomach.
After Sweety had surgery, doctors successfully removed the hairball (SEE PHOTO). It was so large that it formed a cast of the entire stomach. Following her surgery, the teen was taken to the ICU and given food through a feeding tube that had been inserted into her small intestine–this was necessary because her stomach needed time to heal. The hospital psychiatrists proved an uneventful postoperative course seven days after the operation, and the girl was allowed to go home.
Then a month later, she had no indications of issues. She was progressing well with dietary advice, as well as seeing a psychologist. Rapunzel syndrome, while exceedingly rare, is a real medical condition. In fact, there have been 89 reported cases in the BMJ Case Reports journal alone. The woman went to the doctor complaining of abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting – all symptoms which are associated with RapunzeI syndrome.
