Eye donation in State lacks proper vision

Mangalore Today News Network

Bangalore, Oct 03, 2014, DHNS: Absence of a common registry and a committee to monitor the eye donation process has left many patients waiting endlessly for their turn to come.

Lack of co-ordination has resulted in many running from pillar to post, hoping to find a match.

Even as the State has a Zonal Co-ordination Committee for Organ Transplantation, there is no committee that monitors eye donations and transplants. While individual eye banks have a registry of their own, the State lacks a common one.

Veeranna (name changed), 63, who has approached various eye banks in the City for a corneal transplant for his wife’s eye, said he has to run from pillar to post, as there is no common pooling of information. “I began with Minto Hospital four months ago and have approached many private eye banks as well. Every week, I have to go to each of these places, hoping to find a suitable tissue (cornea). If there is a common place where the pooling could be done, it will reduce my physical stress,” he said. 

Adherence to guidelines

With no intervention from the State government to track whether the private eye banks are adhering to the guidelines, Veeranna said, “For all we know, there may be preferential treatment, given the economic condition of the patient or favouritism by a private hospital.”

Speaking to Deccan Herald, a senior official from the Department of Health said they had ensured that the eye donation forms are distributed. On being asked whether the department had a list of people awaiting corneal transplant, the official said, “All major eye banks in the State have a registry of their own. Preference is usually given to the bilaterally blind and children. The order of preference is in their hands.” 

Sunil, supervisor, Lions International Eye Bank, said they had, in their list, 35 hospitals to which the donors’ eyes would be sent, based on the match. “Blood samples are collected from the donors. This is followed by a cornea examination. After that, we check with individual hospitals to look for potential recipients,” he added.

Many people fill in the donation forms enthusiastically. But, not more than 20 per cent translates to reality. The State had only 3,469 eye transplants last year.

Dr Bhujanga Shetty, chairman, Narayana Nethralaya, underlined the need for common pooling of data. “There are plenty of eye banks in the State. It will be ideal to link them all.
 It will be helpful if a common number, similar to 108, is given so that the donors’ families find it easy to locate the nearest eye bank,” Shetty said. He explained that at Narayana Nethralaya, priority was given to those with vision in one eye and children over adults.