Jul 02, 2015 06:07 PM EDT By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

A 16-year-old girl died from constipation after going eight weeks without a bowel movement, an inquest revealed, according to The New York Daily News.

Emily Titterington, who had a phobia of toilets, went into cardiac arrest caused by a condition known as "stool withholding." Going two months without using the toilet, her bowels grew so large that it "compressed her chest cavity and displaced [her] organs," The Independent reported.

Paramedic Lee Taylor told The Independent that the constipated teen, who also had mild autism, was found lying in the doorway of the bathroom in February 2013 with her abdomen "grossly extended."

"Her lower ribs had been pushed out further than her public bone -- I was shocked," said Taylor, who went to the Tittertington's home twice on the night of Emily's death.

A coroner's court at Truro City Hall heard that her death could have been prevented with the appropriate treatment.

Titterington's general practitioner doctor Dr. Alistair James told the coroner he prescribed laxatives, but had not examined her abdomen.

"Had I done so, we would be having a different conversation. Her death could have been avoided with the right treatment at the right point," James said, according to The Independent.

The girl's mother, Geraldine Titterington, said the teen refused medical treatment because she had "severe anxiety" about it, The New York Daily News reported. 

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