A ‘bubbly’ teenager who suffered from ‘Rapunzel Syndrome’ has died, prompting medical experts to warn others of the disorder’s ‘deadly’ nature.
To most people, Rapunzel is a fairy tale character who had long flowing locks of hair and was shut up in a high tower.
However, the beloved storybook icon also lends her name to an extremely rare health condition that killed a 16-year-old UK girl.
In 2017, Jasmine Beever, of Skegness, was admitted to hospital after she suddenly fell ill at college.
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Upon arrival at the institution, practitioners were forced to attempt life-saving resuscitation on the student.
Unfortunately, the attempt was unsuccessful and Beever later died.
Wanting to get to the root of the issue, medical staff ordered an autopsy be performed on the teenager’s body and doctors later revealed she’d been suffering from Rapunzel Syndrome.
What is Rapunzel Syndrome?
According to Web MD, the extremely rare condition sees a large hairball (trichobezoar) getting lodged in your stomach and extending into your small intestine.
As hair doesn’t move well through your digestive tract, it can get stuck in your stomach cavity and eventually ball together.
Once it reaches the limits of your stomach wall, the matted hair can begin to jut out through the stomach opening and later grow into the small intestine.
Beever’s autopsy confirmed that she indeed had a hairball in her stomach which had become infected.
A stomach ulcer had later formed which burst and tragically shut down her vital organs.
Speaking to Healthline about Rapunzel Syndrome in 2017, Dr. Katharine Phillips, a professor of psychiatry, said the condition mainly affects girls over the age of 12.
She added that the medical complications related to the disorder can be ‘deadly’ and that hair builds up over time.
Symptoms of Rapunzel Syndrome can include intense stomach pain; bloating; weight loss; vomiting after meals; alopecia and nausea.
"Jasmine was amazing,” said Donna Marshall, the mother of Beever’s friend Billie Jo Ashwell. “She was one of those kids where she would make a sad face in the room smile.
“She was so bubbly. She was friends with Billie and she would always shout across the road to me 'Donna are you okay?' and then she would ask if there was anything I wanted.”
She added to LincolnshireLive that she thought the late teen was a ‘darling’ and that her daughter decided to set up a Just Giving page to help the family with their medical expenses.
Beever’s parents, Michelle Shaw and David Beever, also told the publication: “We are extremely upset but we want to thank everybody for all they have done for the family.”
Ella Scott