Surgeons in a Southern Kazakhstan hospital were stunned after they pulled out a massive hairball from the stomach of an 11-year-old girl.
She was taken to hospital after suffering from a severe stomach ache and loss of appetite.
Even a glass of water proved too much for the girl.
The Daily Star of UK reported that it was not until she was taken to the hospitals in the city of Taraz, southern Kazakhstan, that the bizarre discovery was made.
Doctors found a huge ball of hair measuring 17cm across the stomach and around 35cm into the girl’s bowel.
Her parents said they had spotted their daughter chewing her long hair, but were unaware she was swallowing it.
A similar case was reported by another UK news website, dailymail.com in May 2015.
A five-year-old girl unable to eat was found to have a large hairball blocking her digestive system. The girl came to a hospital in Adelaide, Australia, suffering from abdominal pain that had become steadily worse over a few weeks and also complained of an increasingly poor appetite.
Scans confirmed she had a bulk of hair in her stomach, which made it look as though the organ was solid and full of soft tissue.They also showed a large lesion in her stomach and small bowel.
She was diagnosed with Rapunzel syndrome, a rare condition in which a hairball (called a trichobezar) is found in the stomach, with its tail in the colon.
Rapunzel syndrome is a condition where ingested hair collects in the patient’s stomach and can cause severe problems.