Health & Wellness

‘Bubble Tea’ Tapioca Balls Found In Girl’s Stomach After She Complained Of Pains

A warning for fans of the popular beverage

The old message about enjoying things in moderation is something one Chinese teen is sure to adhere to in the future.

The girl, 14, was reportedly addicted to bubble tea.

But her love of the popular milk drink, which is packed with tapioca balls, ended with her in hospital and hundreds of undigested black, chewy pearls lodged in her stomach.

The girl, known as Xiao Shen, had become bloated, was complaining about severe stomach pain, was struggling to eat and had not gone to the toilet in days.

She was taken to the emergency department where, according to local media reports, CT scans revealed more than 100 “shadows” throughout her digestive tract.

The sheepish teen told her doctors she had drunk pearl milk five days earlier, but specialists concluded that so many undigested pearls would have been “caused by drinking for a while”.

The pearls in the drink are made of a tapioca starch, “which is not easy to digest”.

Xiao was prescribed a laxative to rid her body of the undigested pearls and told to drink less of her favourite beverage.

Originally published on Perth Now.

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