Ludhiana, July 27, 2022 (News Team): Sankara Eye Hospital, Ludhiana, one of India's leading eye care service providers, has announced a campaign urging people to pledge to donate eyes in the context of the National Eye Donation Fortnight. Through this campaign, the hospital aims to create awareness on eye-donation in India, which is still a neglected reality with few people coming forward to donate eyes. The hospital has so far been able to get 750 eye donation pledges from Ludhiana district itself,in its campaign that was initiated on July 1, 2022 and has targeted 10,000 pledges by the end of this year.The country needs one lakh eye donations every year but has only 5 per cent of the required donors and it is important to create awareness regarding eye donation.
Eye donation is an act of donating one’s eyes after his/her death, a deed of charity, purely for the benefit of the society and is totally voluntary. The eye donation of the deceased can be authorized by the next of kith and kin even if the deceased did not pledge to donatehis/ her eyes before death. Age or systemic illness such as diabetes or hypertension, heart disease, kidney disease are not barriers for eye donations. The corneas of a person are unaffected even if they have undergone any eye surgeries in the past and hence will be useful and can be transplanted in others.
Dr. Manoj Gupta, Unit CMO, Sankara Eye Hospital, Ludhiana said, “Donated eyes can be used to restore vision in people who have corneal blindness. The front, clear and transparent tissue of the eye called as cornea can be used to restore vision in a corneal blind person. The other portions of the eye are also used for research and training purposes to develop cures for some of the common eye diseases. From each pair of donated eyes, two blind people will get vision and light in their life, making it a noble cause.”
Commenting on the campaign, Ravinder Pal Chawla, Unit Head, Sankara Eye Hospital, Ludhiana, said, “Through our #hopeofvision campaign, we are reaching out to various NGOs, educational institutes, government and private organisations, RWAs for mass mobilization and awareness and making them our Campaign Associates, urging to pledge their eyes as it will be a gift of vision to people who suffer from blindness.”