People get hairballs too (don't read this over lunch)

[cincinnati chili]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/11/21/hairball.case/index.html

It may not be the most appetizing reading before a hearty holiday meal, but the New England Journal of Medicine is devoting part of its Thanksgiving issue to a giant hairball -- and not the feline kind.

[MrCinatit]

I am pretty sure I have read cases where people have died from this.
I would search for confirmation, but reading that story above was enough for me.