The girl, 17, ended up with a seven kilograms (15lb) ball of hair in her stomach – the weight of a five-month-old baby. After an ultrasound, the lump was initially suspected to be a cancerous tumour. But doctors removed the hairball instead during a six-hour operation.
Video shows doctors in Jharkhand’s Bokaro district in India operating on the girl on August 31. A team led by Dr GN Sahu operated at a private hospital in Bokaro.
Dr Sahu said that it was the first time in his 40-year career that he had seen such a massive accumulation of hair in the abdomen.
Doctors found the girl had a habit of chewing on her hair and a lump slowly accumulated inside the abdomen and laced the entire stomach.
Sources say she is stable and was set to be released from the hospital after a preliminary observation.