A 24-year-old woman in Ecuador was suffering from weight loss, pain, vomiting, and an inability to eat. She also had a hard stomach. Doctors at Verdi Cevallos Balda General Hospital in Portoviejo could feel the mass inside of her. In a 45-minute operation, they pulled a two-pound bezoar, or hairball, out of her stomach. The mass was 16 inches long, in the shape of her stomach and had protruded into the intestine.
The medical report doesn't tell us how the hair was ingested, although it was estimated to be gathering for two years. A psychological condition called trichophagia is an eating disorder in which the patient is compelled to swallow hair. This woman was said to have a "psychoemotional ailment" that wasn't identified to the public. However, she is undergoing followup care. Read more about the case at Gizmodo. Be warned that there is a picture of the hairball.
(Unrelated image credit: Bobjgalindo)
