Siliguri, March 25: An operation to extricate a grain of paddy from a child’s ear was “successful”, but he died half an hour later in a district hospital this morning.

ENT surgeon Subir Mallick had handed the grain, stuck in two-and-a-half-year-old Ashish Barui’s right ear for two days, to his mother after the operation at the Jalpaiguri hospital. But when the boy was brought back to the children’s ward, he did not respond to his mother’s calls.

A nurse saw him and said he was dead, said Ashish’s father Babu. “A doctor confirmed it.”

The hospital authorities had not asked the Baruis to sign a bond — a pact that says the hospital should not be held responsible in case of accidental complications during surgery — before Ashish was taken to the operation table.

“After my son was declared dead, they insisted that we sign the papers. We refused,” said Babu, a resident of Churabhandar village in Mainaguri block, 70km from Siliguri.

Ashish was playing at home on Sunday when the grain found its way into his ear.

“He was complaining of earache and we took him to the ENT specialist (Mallick) yesterday,” said Barui.

“After examining him, the doctor suggested an operation. We were initially reluctant but later agreed and admitted him to the hospital.”

Anaesthetist Shyamali Gupta and other paramedical staff assisted Mallick in the operation.

The family has lodged a police complaint and a case has been started.

A Siliguri-based ENT specialist said the operation need not have been conducted in such haste.

Mallick and Gupta could not be contacted.

Sources in the hospital said an overdose of anaesthesia could have killed the boy.

Hospital superintendent S.C. Bhowmik said a post-mortem was needed to ascertain the cause of death. “There are chances of death in case a child has a weak heart.”