Jamnagar, July 01: Eye donation is believed to be noblest cause in the present era. In India, it is still a rare phenomenon.
People are not fully aware of eye donation. However, Some of the responsible citizens are coming forward to donate their eyes after death.
It is really shameful if donated eyes are not preserved due to negligence of hospital and lack of facilities to preserve donated corneas.
Such incident occurred in Jamnagar when as many as 18 donated corneas were rendered useless before its delivery to the government-run G G Hospital here due to lack of preservation facility.
Nine boxes containing the corneas were sent by Bhuj-based NGO Kutchi Jain Mahajan through Patel Travel company yesterday evening, they said adding a letter from the NGO sent along with the boxes gave details of the donor, his vital statistics, and time of cornea extraction.
The corneas sent to the hospital were extracted from donors between June 8 and June 26, authorities added.
According to doctors at the hospital, corneas have to be used within few hours of extraction from a donor. However, they can be preserved for a little longer using certain kind of preservatives.
But lack of proper facilities allegedly made them useless and the Hospital superintendent Dr B D Gupta has initiated a inquiry into the matter besides convening a meeting with hospital’s eyebank authorities in this regard, they said.
—Agencies