Recently, a three-month-old baby named Rahul was in the news for spontaneously catching fire like the comic character Ghost Rider, but unlike the fictional character the baby isn t immune to the flames and suffered 10 degree burn injuries. The child who s admitted in the Kilpauk Medical College Hospital (KMCH) in the Tamil Nadu capital is believed to suffer from a condition called spontaneous human combustion (SHC). There have been over 200 cited cases of this condition through the centuries and no one has ever been able to explain with complete scientific accuracy why it happens. There s also the possibility that it could be something far more mundane yet horrific like child abuse.
The baby is stable and treatment is on for burn injuries and scars. Life-saving support systems are there for Rahul in the intensive care unit, R. Narayana Babu, head of paediatrics at the hospital told IANS on Saturday.
He said the baby will be under observation and may be discharged after two weeks depending on his condition. Doctors say that in SHC, burns are caused as the body catches fire because of the excretion of gases. The mother told us that the baby has suffered four episodes of such spontaneous fire and suffered burn injuries. The last episode was a month back. The baby was admitted to the Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) (in Puducherry), R. Jayachandran a professor in the department of paediatrics at KMC told IANS. (Read: Suffering from uncommon diseases, don't lose hope)
The family does not have any medical records and we have to check with JIPMER for the case sheet, Jayachandran said. According to Babu, the baby has burn injuries in the abdomen and chest. The injuries are on the front of the body.
We have only the mother's version. The baby has to be carefully observed. We have to investigate whether the ailment is genetic. We will carry out tests to find out the kind of gases generated by the baby, Jayachandran said. The doctor said until a proper diagnosis is made, the baby would be given treatment that is only symptomatic, with the administration of antibiotics. The baby's parents, Rajeswari and Karna, are agricultural labourers at Villupuram district, around 160 km from the state capital. Rahul has a two-year-old sister. The Villupuram district collector referred the baby to KMCH, a hospital that is well known for treating burn injuries.
Case of child abuse?
On the other hand, The Hindu reports that it could be a case of child abuse as well. Initial tests show that the baby has normal blood and urine samples. According to his mother, the baby burst into flames without any source nine days after his birth and suffered three more similar episodes.
J. Jagan Mohan, head of plastic surgery, who examined the baby, said there was very remote possibility of self-ignition. Such a case has not been reported so far, he said. The injuries have healed and the scars are from an older accident that may have occurred less than three weeks ago. We need to explore the possibility of child abuse, he said. Also since the baby doesn t have any injuries on his back, it s quite possible that the child was hurt due to coming in contact with a hot object. A further probe will check what sort of clothes the child was wearing and whether that could be responsible for the injuries.
Ordinarily, a child of his age should weigh six kg but Rahul was just 4.5 kg, said doctors. R. Narayana Babu, head of paediatrics intensive care unit where Rahul is being treated, said the baby was being provided supplementary feed for nourishment besides being breastfed. We have sent sweat swabs, blood and urine samples to a private laboratory to test for aberrations in metabolic functions. The results are expected on Monday, he said.
Is spontaneous human combustion real?
For long the scientific community has doubted even the existence of a condition like this. As of 1995, there have only been 200 reported cases in the last 300 years. The most common scientific explanation is that food is converted into methane inside the body which when released by body pores can lead to a fire triggered by various sources.
At most times it s caused by an unnoticeable small source like a candle or a cigarette which goes undetected. An extensive two-year research project involving 30 cases of alleged SHC conducted in 1984 found that all the cases actually had plausible sources for ignition that was left out of popular accounts. At other times, the victim was either drunk or incapacitated in some other way which would make the victim unable to respond properly to the fire. As Benjamin Radford, science writer and deputy editor of the science magazine Skeptical Inquirer, asks If SHC is a real phenomenon (and not the result of an elderly or infirm person being too close to a flame source), why doesn t it happen more often? There are 6 billion people in the world, and yet we don t see reports of people bursting into flame while walking down the street, attending football games, or sipping a coffee at a local Starbucks.
Update: Rahul's test results to be out today
With inputs from IANS
