Saradha Mohan Kumar, TNN | Aug 10, 2013, 12.57 AM IST
In rare condition, Tamil Nadu infant keeps catching fire
The paediatrician treating Rahul, said the baby emitted some highly combustible gas through the pores of his skin, which made him catch fire.
CHENNAI: Rahul has been virtually in flames four times since he was born two-and-a-half months ago. Doctors say it's due to a rare condition called spontaneous human combustion (SHC).
Afflicted with the disorder, seen only in 200 people across the world in the past 300 years, the child is undergoing treatment at Kilpauk Medical College (KMC) Hospital.
Rahul was nine days old when he first "caught fire" in the presence of his mother Rajeshwari who watched in disbelief as there was no source of fire in the vicinity. She took him to the Villupuram Medical College from where the baby was discharged three days later. After coming home, he suffered burns again. "Doctors say he is a healthy child and his organs are fine. The last time he caught fire was a fortnight ago, and this time it was head to toe," said Rajeshwari who hails from a village near Tindivanam.
Paediatrician Dr Narayana Babu, who is treating Rahul, said the baby 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.
The case has stunned doctors in the city. There are many theories about the poorly understood condition, ranging from high acetone content in the body to the paranormal. Some doctors say everyone has certain amount of alcohol present in their blood and when its content is high, it combines with the gases in the body; resulting in burns.
"More than 20 years ago, we saw a similar case of a 23-year-old man, but it went undocumented," said Dr Jayaraman, former head of the burns unit in KMC. "Several theories of SHC do the rounds but they are very vague and not backed by scientific proof. Though there is no special cure for the condition, it can be treated like a regular burn injury," he said.
Dr Kalpesh Gajiwala, a burns specialist at the Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, said it was surprising that it happened to a child in a village, where children are usually breastfed and breast milk, would rarely ever be converted to methane. "A plausible hypothesis for SHC is that some bacteria, such as the methanogenic micro-organism-archaebacteria, in the intestine convert the food into methane, which is a combustible substance," said Dr Gajiwala.
A small spark, which need not be an obvious one, anywhere nearby, can trigger the fire, said the doctor. "Let us say if the child is covered with a silk cloth which can generate static electricity, the combustible gas and the electricity can cause fire," he said.
"The boy should not be near inflammable substances. It's better if he is kept in a cold place," said Dr Babu.
Human torch mystery: Doctors expect test results today
TNN Aug 12, 2013, 03.42AM IST
CHENNAI: Doctors treating Rahul, a two-and-half-month-old boy who has caught fire on his own, are expecting test results on Monday that may reveal how and why the baby went up in flames.
A native of a village near Tindivanam, Rahul has been undergoing treatment at Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital since Friday. He has caught fire four times since he was born. Doctors are debating the possibility of spontaneous human combustion (SHC). It is a rare condition in which a person could catch fire due to the emission of highly inflammable substances through the body.
"SHC is a hoax theory. A baby catching fire spontaneously is not possible," said burns specialist at KMC Dr J Jagan Mohan. "Alcoholics have a very small percentage of alcohol secreted in their sweat but even that wouldn't generate a fire."
Doctors had recommended a series of sweat, urine and blood tests to check whether Rahul has inflammable substance in his samples.
Head of department of paediatrics Dr Narayana Babu told TOI on Sunday that the child's internal organs were normal and there were no indications of fractures. "We're exploring all possibilities, including a case of abuse. The baby's organs are functioning normally and he is stable now," said Dr Babu.
Most of Rahul's burn injuries have healed but he has scars on his head, hands, stomach and legs after he caught fire a month ago. "The baby doesn't have any scars or burn injuries on his back. This could be because he was lying on his back and there was no air contact to cause a fire," said the doctor.
‘Human torch’ baby tests normal, doctors stumped
TNN | Aug 13, 2013, 04.13 AM IST
CHENNAI/PUDUCHERRY: Is a 50-day-old boy from a village in Tamil Nadu a 21st century victim of a phenomenon widely accepted in the 1800s but since dismissed by experts?
Adding to the medical mystery that doctors confront with Rahul, whose parents claim has suddenly "caught fire" at least four times since he was born, results of preliminary tests released on Monday showed no abnormality — or any reason for the child to suffer from recurring bouts of spontaneous combustion.
Doctors at Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital, who are treating the child, conducted a series of tests to check Rahul's vital functions. "We received some of the test results and the baby's liver and kidneys seem to be fine. X-ray results show no damage to his bones," said paediatrician Dr Narayana Babu.
The baby's blood, urine and sweat samples are also being analysed to check for any toxic substance, Dr Babu said. "We'll get the results from a chromosome test by the end of the week," he added.
Rahul, of T Parangani in Villupuram district, has been undergoing treatment at the hospital in Chennai since Friday. Reports of his condition have generated a debate among doctors on spontaneous human combustion, with some stating that it is a possibility and others completely rejecting the theory.
Superstitious residents of the village where the family lives believe that the baby is possessed by evil spirits. A group of residents of T Parangani had directed the baby's parents, P Karna and Rajeshwari, to leave the village and stay in a temple till the baby is "cured". Rajeshwari took Rahul to a temple in a nearby hamlet, Brammadesam, on August 5 and stayed there till officials in the district decided to move the baby to Chennai for better medical care.
Rahul's grandfather, V Perumal, 75, said his son and daughter-in-law, both manual workers, came to the village with the baby in the third week of July.
"My son said the baby caught fire twice when they were staying with Rajeshwari's parents," Perumal said. "I used to stay awake till 4am looking after the baby and then my wife would wake up and take over. One night, within three days of their visit, we heard the baby scream and we found a sheet near the baby on fire. Fire soon engulfed the baby's head and neck. We doused it with water."
Perumal's wife Ponamma said their hut caught fire on July 30, making the villagers panic. "The villagers asked the parents to take the baby to a temple. None of the villagers gave us accommodation. We spent that night in the rain as the thatched roof was gutted," Ponamma said.
The elderly couple denied charges of child abuse. "How could we torture our grandson?" Ponamma asked. "The baby's parents too would not do him any harm." Police said they did not receive any complaint of child abuse. "We have not received any complaints or direction from the government to probe whether it is a case of child abuse," said Villupuram superintendent of police S Manoharan.
Rare medical condition sets Chennai baby afire repeatedly
CHENNAI, August 10, 2013
Updated: August 11, 2013 10:37 IST
Three-month-old has gone up in flames four times so far; under treatment for extensive burn injures
Rajeswari’s joy knew no bounds when she gave birth to a healthy boy. Nine days later, she found him on fire, literally, and scampered to douse the flames.
“People thought I set him on fire deliberately,” says Rajeswari, who hails from Nedimoliyur, a hamlet in Villupuram.
The baby went on to suffer three more similar accidents following which the village community ostracised Rajeswari and her family.
The child, Rahul, now three months old, is currently at the Kilpauk Medical College Hospital (KMC) and is being treated for extensive burn injuries.
He suffers from an extremely rare condition called spontaneous human combustion, doctors at KMC say. R. Narayana Babu, head of paediatrics at KMC, says the baby was referred to the hospital by the Villupuram collector.
“The dean got a call from the collector and the child came to us on Thursday evening. We researched online and found that over the past 300 years, 200 such cases were reported. The last reported case was of a 73-year-old man who died in his sleep, after going up in flames, in Wales, England, in 1995,” he says.
In the paediatric intensive care unit where Rahul is admitted, the authorities have placed a bucket of water and a fire extinguisher near the baby’s bed to tackle any emergency.
Terming it a ‘rarest of rare occurrence,’ Dr. Babu says, “It has been scientifically documented that concentrated combustion air excreted from the body could result in such episodes. In elderly persons, heavy drinking could lead to the body excreting alcohol-like substance which could get ignited.”
Rahul is now being treated with external application of ointment for his burns. On Friday morning, the head of plastic surgery at KMCH, J. Jaganmohan, examined him.
Doctors say the parents will be trained to take care to prevent exposing the child to situations that could cause him to go up in flames. “We have to teach them to avoid sending the child out in the sun and specify the kinds of clothes he can wear when he grows up,” Dr. Babu says.
Rajeswari’s husband Karna is an agricultural labourer in a village near Puducherry. The couple also have a two-year-old daughter who is now in the care of Karna’s father.
Keywords: spontaneous human combustion, rare medical condition in infant
We didn't start the fire
August 12, 2013
Updated: August 13, 2013 16:21 IST
Ramya Kannan
The recent case of a baby bursting into flames spontaneously has evoked the term Spontaneous Human Combustion in our midst. Is there a science behind it, or is it just the poltergeist?
Baby on fire
Rahul was nine days old when his mother says he first caught fire. Yes, just like that, out of the blue, flames on the little baby's body. The baby's mother Rajeswari said so.
She also said that subsequenty the baby had spontaneously set himself ablaze three other times, and he had to be doused out. Three months later, they brought the baby to Kilpauk Medical Hospital, Chennai. As the baby slept, in his nappy, an IV line going through his slender wrist, the evidence of those burns were apparent. The kind of burns that make you flinch.
Conspiracy theories abound
The family comes from a remote village in Villupuram district, Tamil Nadu. A village where they say huts caught fire inexplicably, suddently, without apparent provocation. Turns out later that arsonists mixed phosphorous in wet cow dung and when the dung dried up, the phosphorus caught fire. When a baby seemed to burst out in flames all by himself, the villagers grew suspicious. How could such a thing happen? They began with evil spirits and finally reasoned that it must be the parents: they were arsonists. And they set their baby afire.
> > Human beings are made that way: the worse specimens tend to abuse children; they hurl accusations without basis, they inovke spirits, and they hang people without a trial. But what does not make sense is why a family wanting to kill a boy baby (in a country where the arrival of a boy is celebrated) will douse the flames after first setting the child on fire.
The mother is perplexed by these conspiracy theories that ricochet off her frequently. But what really bothers her is her young son busting into flames: naturally, it scares her.
Voila! Spontaneous Human Combustion
In the absence of any evidence to show the contrary, the good doctors browsed the Web long and hard, first concluded that Baby Rahul was probably a classic spontaneous human combustion (SHC).
Before we go on to science let's just bust one more conspiracy theory that had been floating around: The mother was doing it deliberately for publicity. Which would make sense if she was aware of SHC, as a concept. Now, Rajeswari is unlettered, or barely literate. If we presume that she had apriori knowledge of spontaneous human combustion, then we might as well ask her to explain the science behind it, instead of the doctors who have their knickers in a twist, trying to figure out whoddunit.
Meanwhile, they have arrived at a simplistic answer: child abuse. The logic being the child was not burnt on his back, but only on the front of his torso, the chest and abdomen, besides the head. Since an infant, 3 months old or less, spends all the time on the back, it's not surprising the baby has an unscathed back. So, pfffft to your easy-way-out child abuse theory. Bust, in my opinion, again.
Science, Lies and much fumbling
And, now science. Or is it science.
Spontaneous Human Combustion actually doesn't explain much - it just confesses man's ignorance at what happens; etiology unknown; cause unclear. When there is no known external source of ignition for a human body catching fire, we say SHC.
Let's see if we can get at this working from the basics.
Starting a fire
So, how do we start a fire? You need oxygen, heat and fuel?
Oxygen, there is plenty of where we live; the body generates heat, we know, and as for fuel, all that flesh and fat must count for something. And yet, we don't all burst into flame.
Those studying SCH do so with skepticism, because they are only defining it as the indefinable. That's hardly a definition. We're not talking mysticism here, we're talking science, and science is in the business of providing plausible explanations.
Often explanations are based on hypotheses. So the scientists work backwards to construct a plausible tale that would explain Spontaneous Human Combustion.
Science.howstuffworks.com threshes all the reasons out in a pretty kicking-the-derriere manner. Here goes:
1.Methane, a highly inflammable gas, is being generated in the intestines. Possible, the intestines have to process a lot of crap. And that they are set ablaze by enzymes within the body. Which means combustion, which is how a car engine burns fuel to move, say, happens inside the body. Except, since there is more external damage than to the internal organs, the authors don't think much of this.
2.Buildup of static electricity inside the body or from an external geomagnetic force exerted on the body. The authors quote Larry Arnold, a self-proclaimed expert on spontaneous human combustion, who suggested that the phenomenon is the work of a new subatomic particle called a pyroton, which interacts with cells to cause a mini explosion. But the pyroton had not showed itself so far.
There go two plausible theories. Felled by logic.
The ingiting spark
So let us suppose there are igniting factors in the form of sparks in a room that is electrified. And that the person who will combust shortly might have on his or her person something eminently combustible: clothing. The infinitesimal sparks fall on the material that immediately catches fire, flames break out and burns ensue in a manner that is predictable in cases of SHC: the torso and head are burnt.
Again we must ask. Certainly, there are a number of people wearing clothing living in rooms with electrical fittings, but it doesn't happen to all.They walk around with mobile phones, tablets, all of which require some form of electrical charge to live. The spark could equally come from any source of fire in the room: lighted candles, incense sticks, smouldering cigarette butts.
Going back to Rahul, the 201st reported case of SHC in 300 years, any of those trigger factors could have been present, in fact, all of them. And an infant is mostly swaddled in soft cotton in this part of the country. Cotton, by the way, is perfect combustible material- it ignites fast and burns even faster.
A baby, at that age, as we have already said, is prone and pretty immobile unless carried, so that might explain the rather ghastly burns, in classic SHC patterns on the torso and head.
But if all these factors existed, there is enough reason to believe that others in the household were/are dressed similarly, and are exposed to the same igniting spores. None of them caught fire: Not Rajeswari, not her husband Karna and not even their first born, a daughter.
And thus we come back to SHC, the non definition. Meanwhile, the doctors have sent samples of the baby's blood and sweat for testing. Metabolic and functional anomalies will shine through the test tube and stained slide, they hope. And, explain why Baby Rahul tends to light up without obvious provocation. Perhaps arson experts and those advancing the SHC theory globally could take a look at this case. Perhaps, Rahul can provide the elusive explanation.
While we are at it, will do us good to remember that Rahul's still a babe in arms, not a lab rat. Let's be excited by the challenging possibilities of finding an answer, but let's not forget that the living baby needs to be accorded dignity too.
Until we know more, however, there is always Billy Joel. We do know,
"We didn't start the fire; it was always burning; since the world's been turning. We didn't start the fire; no we didn't light it; But we tried to fight it."
Keywords: spontaneous human combustion, SHC, baby, bursting into flames, science, medicine, theory
