A strange incident occurred in the European country of the Czech Republic, where doctors surgically removed hair the size of a beer glass from the stomach of an 11-year-old girl.
According to the French news agency AFP, a hospital in the Czech Republic said on Tuesday that surgeons removed a beer glass-sized amount of hair from a girl's stomach. The girl is suffering from a hair-eating mental illness.
An 11-year-old girl suffers from Rapunzel syndrome, the first case of which was reported in 1968, with only about a dozen other cases reported since then.
The disease called 'Rapunzel Syndrome' is named after the character in the story of Grimm, which was also made into the blockbuster animated film 'Tangled' by Disney in 2010.
"This disease is related to the hair-scratching disease trichotillomania and the hair-eating disease trichophagia," says Mats Petija, head surgeon at the hospital in Opava, Czech Republic. Most girls are affected by this disease from childhood to puberty.
The hair in the girl's stomach was up to 8 inches long and 3 inches thick, which was too difficult to remove through the mouth, leading to surgery.
Dr. Martis Patija adds that 'if the hair was not removed from the stomach, the girl would have pain and gradually lose weight.'
He also says that 'in serious cases, it could cause stomach ulcers and hair could spread throughout the body.'