WARNING: Images included within this post may be disturbing
A teenage girl in India can finally eat again after doctor's removed a melon-sized object from her stomach.
Aakansha Kumarim, 16, recently starting vomiting whenever she tried to eat. Her parents noticed that something was wrong as her weight started to plummet.
Doctor's say an x-ray revealed a large object taking up 80 percent of her stomach. Turned out that object was a large hairball... and the teen admitted to secretly eating her hair for years, a disorder known as trichophagia.
Also called Rapunzel syndrome, a rare condition in which a hairball (called a trichobezar) is found in the stomach, with its tail in the colon.
A team, led by gastro surgeon Dr Abhay Kumar, removed the hairball in a open surgery at Doon Medical College and Hospital, in Dehradun, India.
He said: 'The hairball occupied 250 ml to 300 ml of space in the stomach. And this was causing her to lose interest in eating.
'The surgery was challenging because we had to extract the hairball in one go.
Kumarim is reportedly recovering well following the procedure.