A team of child specialists at Chennai in southern India successfully treat a rare case of unexpected and instant combustion endured by an infant within its body and declare the baby cured of this ailment, much to the relief of its anxious parents.
CHENNAI, TAMIL NADU, INDIA (AUGUST 23, 2013) (ANI) - A team of child specialists of Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital at Chennai in southern India successfully treated a rare case of unexpected and instant combustion endured by an infant within its body.
On Friday (August 23), they declared that the baby had been cured of this ailment, much to the relief of its anxious parents but on a note of caution by saying agencies concerned with children's welfare and safety must keep a track of this infant.
It was over a fortnight ago that this infant whose body spontaneously would become excessively warm and leave behind literal burn marks on the body was referred to this hospital.
Although this had startled the doctors, they diagnosed the various parameters of the infant's anatomy and managed to control the unusual ailment.
Briefing the media, Dean of Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital, Dr. P Ramakrishnan said that with the success of prescribed therapy, the team of doctors did not observe any more symptoms of internal rise in temperature and consequent burn injuries.
"There is no evidence of spontaneous burns in the child Rahul, two-and-a half months old, admitted in our hospital, 15 days back. The child, who is on treatment, has recovered from burns injury completely," said Dr. Ramakrishnan.
He also mentioned while the child is fit for discharge from the hospital, other agencies engaged in welfare of children ought to monitor the further care of this child to ascertain if any sort of child abuse had been the cause.
On this aspect, he recalled there was inconsistency in the statements given by the family members of the child.
"The possibility of child abuse has to be investigated by the appropriate authority, specially police and child welfare agency. Already the baby has been admitted as medico-legal case," added Dr.Ramakrishnan.
Rahul's parents are labourers and the child was earlier admitted to a hospital inPondicherry when the child had suffered serious burns due to spontaneously combusting sensation in the body.
According to the parents of Rahul, the infant has been on 'fire' four times since its birth two-and-a-half months ago.
The child has scars and lesions across the body due to the several cases of spontaneously combusting.
Meanwhile, controversy surrounds 'spontaneous combustion' which some believe happens when an object bursts into flames from an internal chemical reaction, without being ignited by an external heat source.
This rare phenomenon has been recorded in 200 people across the world in the last 300 years.
There have been claims of death from this, but only few have been properly diagnosed and treated by experts and no scientific proof of the alleged phenomenon has been found.