CHENNAI:A team of five doctors at Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital (KMCH) will provide treatment to and run tests on a nine-day-old baby boy whose parents claim is a victim of spontaneous combustion.

Doctors admitted the child, whose mother K Rajeswari, 22, is from T Parangini in Villupuram district, to the neo-natal intensive care unit (NICU) where they will monitor him at all times by surveillance camera.

Rajeswari had in August 2013 said her older son Rahul, then three years old, spontaneously caught fire. Rahul's parents brought him to KMCH, where doctors ran a series of tests on the boy and debunked the claims of his parents. They raised doubts that he could have been a victim of abuse by his parents or relatives or had been burnt in an accidental fire.

KMCH dean Dr N Gunasekaran heads the team of doctors treating Rajeswari's younger child. Others in the team include the heads of the hospital's paediatrics, psychiatric and plastic surgery departments. Gunasekaran said they would soon decide on the course of treatment for the child.

"We have sent wound swabs for tests. The results will be out in two days," Gunasekaran said. "We will decide on further tests and treatment on Monday."

Rajeswari said the baby, born on January 9, caught fire on January 15, with his feet going up in flames. The parents initially took the baby to a PHC and later to Mundiyambakkam Government Medical College. Doctors there referred the child to KMCH.After running tests on Rahul, doctors had said claims of spontaneous combustion usually involve a parent or caregiver abusing a child or patient in instances of Munchausen by proxy syndrome, a pattern of systematic harm that is a major cause of child death.

