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Initial tests on the three-month-old baby Rahul who suffered from a series of burns allegedly owing to a condition called Spontaneous Human Condition have revealed no signs of child abuse.
The baby born to labourers Karnan and Rajeshwari from T Parangini village near Tindivanam, suffered from burns four times where he caught fire on its own according to his mother Rajeshwari. Dr Naryana Babu, head of paediatrics at Kilapauk Medical College and Hospital said they have conducted a total of 35 tests and results were awaited for most of them from external labs. However, prima facie investigations suggest that baby is not suffering from child abuse.
We have conducted tests for sugar levels, potassium levels, haemoglobin count, ECG and others. We conducted ultra-sonogram and whole body x-ray. So far it is all normal, the doctor told the. We also checked for damage to internal organs and bone fracture. The baby had no signs of it. But we have still not ruled out the possibility, the doctor added. Results of various other tests are awaited.
The child is right now being treated for burns. With the history of the parents and information provided by them, we thought it to be near that diagnosis, the paediatrics head said. Meanwhile, Dr Jayaraman, former head of the Burns Ward in KMC said there was a possibility that the infant could be suffering from SHC. He recalled treating a 11-year-old boy from Tamil Nadu in KMC some 20 years back. The boy suffered burns in a small area, but he was discharged after two days as he was admitted in an initial stage. There was a possibility that the baby could be having SHC which happens when the acid underneath (the skin) evaporates, the doctor 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.