Astounding treatment of a probable child abuse case in India. Diagnosis: Spontaneous combustion.
Tamil Nadu’s baby Rahul sets on fire by himself : South, News – India Today.
Three-month-old Rahul, who is admitted in the Kilpauk Medical College Hospital (KMCH) in Chennia with 10 degree burn injuries because of a condition called spontaneous human combustion (SHC), is stable, doctors said Saturday.
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 pediatrics at KMC said.
Appalling. There is NO SUCH THING as spontaneous combustion, from gases or otherwise. There is zero mention in this piece of potential abuse by family (parents or sibling). This is a horrible story to read. By publicizing it, all we can do is hope that there are connections to the hospital to get this properly addressed and to make the public aware that people do not catch on fire without an external source.
The mother claims there was no source of ignition. Other media outlets are just as credulous, using the same unskeptical view.
Peebs August 10, 2013 at 7:28 PM
Unfortunately, too many suffer life threatening burns in India.
It’s more surprising that this is a male victim. nmillerche August 10, 2013 at 7:31 PM
Another recent source on this exhibits no trace of incredulity on the part of the reporter (Times of India), even boldly stating that the child “emitted some highly combustible gas through the pores of his skin, which made him catch fire. ‘We have not identified the gas yet,’ said Dr. Babu. http://bit.ly/15XJFRF Zetetic