Major General (Ret) Rehmat Khan, president of Al-Shifa Trust, said on Monday that cornea donations have the potential to give new life to thousands of people as nine thousand people were on the trust’s waiting list for corneas. transplantation.
He noted that the trust receives 800 cornea donations annually and has increased its capacity accordingly. However, most on the waiting list must wait years before their vision is restored and they become useful citizens.
According to Major General (Retd) Rehmat Khan, there is a significant disparity between the supply and demand for corneas in Pakistan and around the world, with corneal blindness accounting for up to 15% of all cases of blindness.
He urged the masses to donate corneas and pointed out that in the previous thirty years only two people had donated corneas and people were reluctant to do so for various reasons.
A media representative reported that Americans are donating corneas to Pakistani patients because residents are reluctant to volunteer for this charity event.
According to him, in August 2018, the first ever eye bank was established in the premises of the Rawalpindi trust with the assistance of the American organization Eversight. There, individuals can submit their will to donate corneas.
He went on to say that because corneal donation is so scarce in the country, 53% of eye patients do not have access to donated corneas; as a result, corneas must be imported from the US and Sri Lanka.
The cornea is one of the easiest tissues to transplant because the donor and recipient do not have to match. He said it is a bloodless tissue that absorbs oxygen directly from the atmosphere.
He went on to say that corneas from old people can be removed and transplanted into the eyes of much younger people.
According to Major General (Ret) Rehmat Khan, Al-Shifa Trust has started corneal transplant at its Sukkar hospital in addition to its facility in Rawalpindi. So far 50 corneal transplants have been successfully completed at Sukkar Hospital at no cost.
Eighty percent of all surgeries performed at Al-Shifa Eye Hospitals in Rawalpindi, Sukkar, Kohat, Muzaffarabad and Chakwal are free. The Trust has performed more than a million different eye surgeries to date.
