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- A 17-year-old hairdressing student died after having
an operation to remove a giant hairball from her stomach, an inquest has
been told.
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- Rachel Haigh, who had a habit of chewing her own hair,
underwent surgery after doctors found a clump the size and shape of a rugby
ball in her abdomen.
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- But while recovering from the operation, at Hastings'
Conquest Hospital, she suffered internal bleeding and died on New Year's
Day.
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- Recording a verdict of accidental death, East Sussex
coroner Alan Craze said that, because Rachel was learning hairdressing
when she died, he had to call in an expert to ensure the hair was hers.
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- Rachel's mother, Norma, of Quebec Road, St Leonards,
told the hearing at Hastings Magistrates' Court she thought her daughter
had grown out of her hair-chewing phase at a younger age.
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- She said: "She used to chew her hair when she was
younger, but had it cut short when she was about 10.
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- "She began to grow it long again about five years
ago but I have not seen her chewing it recently."
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- Mrs Haigh added that, when surgeons had shown her a photo
of the hairball after her daughter's operation, she was shocked. She said:
"I could not believe it. It looked like a dead rat."
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- The consultant surgeon who carried out the operation,
John Lyttle, said: "In my 30-year career I have only once seen a hairball
like this, and that was just a third of this size."
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