WFTV Orlando

Doctors recently took a 10-pound hairball from an 18-year-old woman after she came to them with pain and a 40-pound weight loss.

The New England Journal of Medicine said the woman had been suffering with pain in her abdomen for about five months.

Doctors found a mass there, and when they used a small camera, found that the hairball was taking up nearly her entire stomach.

The patient said that she has a habit of eating her own hair, a condition called trichophagia.

She should have been eating petromalt regularly.



  1. bobbo says:

    Good those with medical info explain how hair can be stuck in the stomach and not dissolved by stomach acid or moved down the bowels?

    I could see 10 pounds of hair eaten at once getting stuck–but this “sounds like” small amounts of hair over a 6 month period???

    I thought hair was protein and thats what we eat? There goes my fingernail diet.

  2. hhopper says:

    OMFG bobbo! A fingernail ball!

  3. bobbo says:

    Well, I figure why pay for Jello when the same thing is growing out the end of my fingers??

    No balls yet! (Ooops!!)

  4. Frank IBC says:

    40-pound weight loss?

    My own hair is starting to seem mighty tasty right about now…

  5. Angel H. Wong says:

    They should have fed her vaseline so she could cough it all out.

  6. Dvorak says:

    A great weight loss plan, I see a book in the works.

  7. wbskeet37 says:

    Not only a weight loss solution but also a fantastic way for anyone to save money by not getting your hair cut.

  8. Eric says:

    Friggin nasty!!! It took 1.5 bottles of wine to wrap my head around this story tonight. Nope. Still friggin’ nasty.

  9. I’ll bet Ann Coulter could have a blast with that thing, once removed from the lady’s stomach.

  10. Rodrigo Santos says:

    Dude… I don’t think I wanted to know this.

  11. Olo Baggins of Bywater says:

    That is just nasty! And it must stink really bad, too.

  12. Cosy home says:

    Bad habbit.
    Strange that stomach can’t digest hair.

  13. Dallas says:

    Looks like a pork tenderloin. A kittle BBQ sauce and voila!

  14. Ascii King says:

    Very valuable bezoar. Improved Save vs poison

  15. MacBandit says:

    Haven’t any of you spent any time out in the wild. Coyote and Wolf crap are always full of hair. You can’t digest hair.

  16. Olo Baggins of Bywater says:

    My septic tank is full of hair, and my cats hack one up every once in a while, but this is still friggin gross. This hairball is loaded with bile and who knows what else.

    I wonder if the folks from Ripley’s have contacted them yet.

  17. OhForTheLoveOf says:

    Well don’t worry… I’m here to ask the important question. Since she took five months and 40 pounds to seek treatment, what was her health insurance disposition? Was she afraid to seek help for financial reasons?

    Seems to me like this might be yet another episode to pile on in favor of a wholly revamped health care system.

  18. Curmudgen says:

    Goes well with Fava beans and a nice Chianti!!

  19. hhopper says:

    I wonder how much the hairball would sell for on Ebay?

  20. OhForTheLoveOf says:

    #19 – I don’t know… But I don’t see the Mother Mary in it, so probably not very much.

  21. James Hill says:

    #20 – These are good threads for you to stick to.

  22. OhForTheLoveOf says:

    #21 – Only if I want to spend more time with you. But soon you’ll be able to play in the big boy threads and you can visit me there too.

  23. James Hill says:

    LMAO – Please, I’ve owned the “big boy threads” for years around here, and gave up on any sort of decent discussion going on a long time ago.

    Quite frankly, that’s the funniest thing you’ve ever said. There are no more decent threads around here anymore. I only come here to flame children like yourself.

    Don’t be mad: You’re not the only one I own around here.

  24. Angel H. Wong says:

    #23

    “I’ve owned the “big boy threads” for years around here.”

    Does that means you can go to the bathroom by yourself now?

  25. Glenn E says:

    This sort of calls into question the whole high fiber diet advice. I guess if the non-soluble fibers are too long, they just roll around in the stomach and collect.

    There are people who also eat dirt. Which is mostly sand. I doubt the stomach acids can break sand down either. Well this is the fruits of not teaching proper nutrition in public schools, for fear that it will hurt the processed food industry’s profits. In fact everything that is taught, is provisional that it doesn’t adversely effect some moneyed institution. Which is why you never hear about pacifism in US public schools. The Army doesn’t like it.

  26. James Hill says:

    #24, Yes. And I have a wide stance too.

  27. LisaRay says:

    Wow, that is a lot of hair

  28. Daniel says:

    I thought that said WTF-TV.

  29. tallwookie says:

    James Hill – Angel just owned you good.

    !!! SMACKDOWN !!!

  30. James Hill says:

    #29,

    and I liked it. Angel can own me any time. I like a cute little bear. He can even be my master. I will grovel at the feet of Angel.


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