Boy dies after surgery goes awry- Hospital under negligence shadow

A two-and-a-half-year-old boy died soon after he was operated on in the Jalpaiguri District Hospital, where he was admitted with a grain of paddy in his right ear.

Babu Barui, a farmer, has lodged a police complaint against ENT surgeon Subir Mallick and the hospital authorities, holding them responsible for his son Ashish’s death.

S.C. Bhowmik, the superintendent of the hospital, said a post-mortem was needed to ascertain the cause of death. “There are chances of expiry in case a child has a weak heart,” he said. Although reluctant at first, the Baruis have agreed to an autopsy to be conducted tomorrow.

Ashish, a resident of Churabhandar village in Mainaguri block, was playing at home on Sunday when a grain of paddy slipped into his ear.

“He was complaining of an ear ache and we took him to the ENT specialist (Dr. Mallick) in Jalpaiguri yesterday,” said Barui. “After examining him, the doctor suggested an operation. We were initially reluctant but later agreed and admitted him to the hospital.”

Ashish was kept in the child ward and around 10 this morning, he was taken to the operation theatre. Dr Mallick, accompanied by Shyamali Gupta, an anaesthetist, and paramedical staff members, performed the operation .

The doctor then took out the grain from the ear and even handed it over to Ashish’s mother.

“After a few minutes, the doctors came out of the OT, but did not say anything about my son’s condition,” the father alleged. “Ashish was then shifted to the ward. My wife found him non-responsive even after half-an-hour and called an on-duty nurse who said he was dead. The doctor came and confirmed it.”

The hospital authorities had not asked the Baruis to sign a bond — a usual practice in health establishments — before Ashish was taken inside.

The bond is a written consent to an operation signed by a close relative of a patient, and which usually states that in case of accidental complications during surgery, the hospital authorities would not be held responsible.

“But after my son was declared dead, they insisted that we should put a signature on the bond papers, which we refused,” Barui said.

The family members have lodged a complaint with the hospital superintendent. Mallick and Gupta could not be contacted.

Hospital sources said an overdose of anaesthesia might have killed the child.

An ENT specialist based in Siliguri said there is usually an urgency to operate when a foreign object is stuck in the larynx.

“In this case, there should have been no hurry and some tests should have been carried out on the child before the operation,” the doctor said on condition of anonymity. “The child seems to have suffered an anaphylactic shock, which can happen as a reaction to the anaesthesia, leading to death.”

The doctor added that such operations on children have to be carried out under general anaesthesia, the dose of which should be given according to the weight of the patient. “But a post-mortem is required to confirm the cause of death.”