DON'T CHEW ON YOUR HAIR KIDS!
In January 1999, a British teenager was rushed to the hospital complaining of severe stomach pains. Surgeons who operated in a desperate - but unsuccessful - attempt to save her life were amazed to find tangled mass of human hair the size of a football lodged in her abdomen.
Rachel, a 17-year-old hairdresser trainee, had been in the habit of chewing the ends of her tresses since early childhood. Specialist registrar Dr Andrew Stearman, of Poole General Hospital, Dorset, said: "The biochemical composition of hair makes it impossible for digestive juices in the stomach to break it down. It therefore accumulates, much like it builds up in the plughole of a bathe or shower, sttracting more hair and other food."
Rocording a verdict of accidental death, Hastings coroner Alan Craze said: "This was something Rachel was doing from time to time by habit. She would have had to impression, if she had thought about it at all, that it was passing through her system. Unfortunately, it was not, and built to a massive size."
Pathologist Nera Patel later measured the hairball - known as a trichobezoar - at 1 foot long, 10 inches wide and 4 inches thick. She said "It was closely compacted and intertwined win the shape of a football. No one in our medical team had seen anything like it."
Rachel's mother Norma, who was shown a picture of the fatal obstruction, simply said: "It looked like a dead rat."
In January 1999, a British teenager was rushed to the hospital complaining of severe stomach pains. Surgeons who operated in a desperate - but unsuccessful - attempt to save her life were amazed to find tangled mass of human hair the size of a football lodged in her abdomen.
Rachel, a 17-year-old hairdresser trainee, had been in the habit of chewing the ends of her tresses since early childhood. Specialist registrar Dr Andrew Stearman, of Poole General Hospital, Dorset, said: "The biochemical composition of hair makes it impossible for digestive juices in the stomach to break it down. It therefore accumulates, much like it builds up in the plughole of a bathe or shower, sttracting more hair and other food."
Rocording a verdict of accidental death, Hastings coroner Alan Craze said: "This was something Rachel was doing from time to time by habit. She would have had to impression, if she had thought about it at all, that it was passing through her system. Unfortunately, it was not, and built to a massive size."
Pathologist Nera Patel later measured the hairball - known as a trichobezoar - at 1 foot long, 10 inches wide and 4 inches thick. She said "It was closely compacted and intertwined win the shape of a football. No one in our medical team had seen anything like it."
Rachel's mother Norma, who was shown a picture of the fatal obstruction, simply said: "It looked like a dead rat."
VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
mistersatan:
Dude, does chewing on your pubes count? 
nazimova:
wow, I always chewed on my hair when I was a kid. thats why my mom started to cut it really short. then everyone thought I was a boy.