Villupuram: A one-year-old child who was suffering from the problem of “catching fire” died in his native village in Tamil Nadu, southern India.
Sanjay Nedumozhianur vomited Tuesday night and was rushed to premier health institute in Puducherry on the advice of local doctors. However, he died on the way to the hospital, police said. He was being treated for what doctors said was “spontaneous human combustion.”
The child was buried on late Wednesday night, police added.
Sanjay had been treated at the Kilpauk Medical College Hospital in Chennai in January 2015 as a new born.
However, doctors at the hospital had then said the boy did not have any health problem and discounted the possibility of SHC, The Times of India reported.
Sanjay’s elder brother Rahul was also treated for similar complaint and had recovered now, police said.
SHC is believed to occur when people catch on fire without an apparent source of ignition. In recent years, there have been quite a few deaths attributed to spontaneous combustion.
In 2011, BBC reported that an Irish coroner ruled that a 76-year-old man who died in his home was the “first Irish case” of spontaneous combustion. And earlier this year, ABC News reported that spontaneous combustion was suspected in the death of an Oklahoma man whose charred remains were found in his kitchen.
In August 2012, research biologist Brian J. Ford theorized that SHC is caused by higher levels of acetone in the body in his article entitled “Big burn theory: Why humans spontaneously combust.”
Ford experimented with acetone-infused meat and found that the meat burned and left behind “only fatty ash,” which is similar to what happens in the suspected cases of SHC.