Yamini Damodaran was 12 when she lost vision in her left eye. Doctors diagnosed her condition as Keratoconus, and prescribed as a temporary measure, among other things, hard contact lenses/spectacles to improve vision. The lenses irritated her eye and caused discomfort, but she plodded on. Meanwhile, she developed problems in her good right eye, but they stabilised after a while. Nine years later, Yamini was taken up for Corneal Transplantation at Sankara Nethralaya. She went on to become a software engineer.
It was a long haul for David Sundar (an orphan who was born blind) from the Palayamkottai Blind school to Chennai where he is now based. Thanks to a corneal transplantation in one eye at Sankara Nethralaya, David can now see the world in all its multi-hued splendour, and is also gainfully employed.
Says G. Ganesh, executive director, Eye Bank Association of India, Hyderabad, “According to statistics put out by the National Programme for the Control of Blindness, there are 1.1 million corneal blind in India given the unreported cases, the figure could be much higher). The majority are children under 15, and in 80 to 85 per cent of cases, the condition is reversible with a corneal transplantation.”
What does the cornea do? The clear, transparent dome in front of the black portion of the eye is the main focussing surface that converges light rays to focus on the retina. Loss of transparency results in loss of vision.
Corneal transplant surgeries, which have a 90 per cent success rate in restoring vision, involve replacing the opaque cornea with a clear cornea obtained from a donor eye. Sounds simple enough, but although the technology is in place and skilled medical professionals are available, we are handicapped by an acute shortage of donor eyes.
Huge backlog
Ganesh points out that while 36,000 corneas were received by banks across the country in 2009, what we needed were 2,00,000 corneas to clear the backlog of waiting patients.
Says industrialist S.N. Srikanth, who has done pioneering work through the Rotary movement in the area of eye donation: “While it is true that religion and myths prevent some people from pledging their own eyes or donating the eyes of deceased family members, the influence of these factors is overrated. The majority of Indians require only the mildest persuasion to donate. What we need is a properly-designed social marketing campaign to generate awareness about eye donation, and an efficient mechanism to collect the donor eyes, with grief counsellors playing a crucial role at the time of death in a family.”
Says Yamini's father N. Damodharan, Superintendent of Police, Security Branch CID: “The corneal transplant was a boon; else, my daughter would have lost her vision.” This inspired him to donate his sister's eyes. “Eye donation is not a big sacrifice as it is made out to be. If people are reluctant, it is because they don't have the breadth of vision. We should reach out to those in need.”
But, sometimes, the internal dynamics in a family also come in the way. This is why, after pledging one's eyes, it is important to nominate someone in the family, or involve the family, to ensure your wish is carried out.
Social worker Sridhar, who donated the eyes of his wife who died of blood cancer, says that “having motivated several people to pledge their eyes, I lost no time in taking the decision to donate my wife's eyes. I looked at it this way: ‘Two people gained vision due to one decision'.”
Basic facts
The eyes have to be removed within six hours after a person dies. The procedure, called enucleation, takes less than 20 minutes. There is no fear of disfigurement after enucleation.
After removal, the eyes are transported to the eye bank in special containers. Once there, the corneas are evaluated and preserved; they last up to 15 days.
Quality corneas (about 41 per cent of the eyes collected) are used for corneal transplants; the rest are used for academic practice and research.
Who can pledge/donate?
Anyone over the age of one is a potential eye donor. Poor eye sight and age are of no consequence. People who wear glasses, those who have undergone cataract surgeries, those who are diabetic, and asthmatic and/or hypertensive can pledge their eyes.
The cornea of a person who dies due to an unknown cause or from an infection caused by rabies, acute leukaemia, tetanus, cholera, meningitis, encephalitis, rubella, syphillis, infectious hepatitis, septicaemia or AIDS, will not be harvested.
Even if the deceased has not pledged his/her eyes, the next of kin can take the decision to donate.
To donate
Call the eye bank as soon as possible
Close the eyes of the deceased and cover with moist cotton
Turn off overhead fans
Drop antibiotic drops into the eyes to prevent infection
Keep the head end of the body raised to reduce bleeding during eye removal
