State shy on donating eyes

While people are more aware about donating eyes as compared to the past,doctors rue that the numbers are simply not enough.

“On an average if around 200 bodies are cremated everyday,400 eyes are going waste. If we get even four to six eyes that would raise the count,” adds Roy.

The director of the Regional Institute of Ophthalmology (RIO),Dr Himadri Dutt,feels that there are just not enough collection centres in the state and even less is the number of doctors willing to conduct the cornea-transplant operations. A view echoed by Dr Samar Basak,who is the secretary of Eye Bank Association of India.

“The process of collecting the eyes is very haphazard in the state. There is absolutely no infrastructure as few hospitals in the state have the necessary licence to conduct these transplant operations,” says Basak,who is a doctor with Disha,one of the two private hospitals to have an eye bank.

According to him,there should be greater effort to decentralise the system and grant more licences to hospitals,especially in smaller cities,for conducting these surgeries.

“The other states have completely decentralised the system but Bengal is far from it,which is why people still flock to Kolkata. While some effort has been made towards it,it is not enough,” adds Basak.

Doctors also point out that with the corneal surgeries not bringing a great amount of profit,there are not too many doctors willing to conduct such operations. In Bengal,there are hardly 10 surgeons who can conduct such surgeries.

Another reason,cited by the doctors,is the less importance given to eye donation campaigns. “There are so many hoardings of AIDS,pulse polio and malaria in the state but does one ever come across a hoarding of eye donation?” asks Roy.

While the number of eyes collected may be low,even more alarming is that the percentage of usage of donated eyes. In US,75 per cent of the donated eyes are used but in India it is 42 per cent. Bengal has a mere 28 per cent usage of donated eyes. Time,they say,is the main factor when it comes to eye donation and places like Disha and Susrut Eye Foundation have a higher rate of usage as they have an in-house eye bank and the licence to conduct the operations.

While the eyes can be stored in a “special media” for four days,most collection centres do not have this facility which means that the eyes have to be used within 24 hours. “All outside collection centres send the eyes to RIO and by the time they collect the eyes and send them,a lot of crucial time is lost,” says Dutt.

Doctors,however,admit that the situation is marginally better now. “Even a few years ago,there were far less people coming forward to donate their eyes and now we daily get a couple of enquiries,” says Dr Pinaki Mitra of Susrut Eye Foundation.