Photograph by AJ Batac
Reports from India are claiming that a 3-month-old baby boy in Chennai is suffering from “spontaneous human combustion”, bursting into flames when he sweats.
Rahul, from Tamil Nadu, was admitted to Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital for burns on Thursday.
The doctors believe that the baby emits highly combustible gases when he sweats, and those gases have resulted in him to catch fire on four different occasions, the first at just nine days old. Speaking to the Deccan Chronicle, Dr R Narayana Babu, head of the paediatrics department at the hospital said:
“The body burns spontaneously due to combustible gases emitting from the patient’s body, without any external source of ignition…Clothes and other things nearby that are inflammable may also catch fire.”
The authorities are investigating the possibility of spontaneous human combustion as as well as the possibility of neglect or abuse, but in the meantime the doctors are keeping a fire extinguisher and a bucket of water near the baby’s bed.