CHENNAI: The Regional Institute of Ophthalmology & Government Ophthalmic Hospital attached to the Madras Medical College inaugurated an Eye Donation Awareness Programme recently. This is being conducted on account of the Eye Donation Awareness Fortnight which is being observed from August 25, 2011 to September 8. Out of the 44,000 eye donations obtained last year in India, Tamil Nadu has contributed 12,000, followed by Gujarat and Maharashtra. Roughly 13 lakh people require eye donation. Last year, only 17,000 eye transplants were conducted in India. Dean of Madras Medical College, Dr V Kanagasabai said, “Though Tamil Nadu has overtaken Gujarat in the eye donations, we still have to come a long way to go when it comes to getting eye donations.” Madras Medical College is planning to utilise the spare time of the 1000 and odd nursing students for creating an awareness among the 16,000 out-patients and 8,000 in-patients who attend their eight allied hospitals. These students will be given a few hours of training by grief counsellors before the launch of this programme. The programme will commence from next week. The aim is to create an awareness so that more than five lakh eye donations can be obtained by this time, next year. Dr Vasantha, Director of Regional Institute of Ophthalmology & Govt Ophthalmic Hospital stated that anybody can donate their eyes. This Eye Bank is the oldest in the country and was started in 1948. Dr Dave, Chairman of Lions Club, said that the Lions Club has been associated with the Government Ophthalmic Hospital since 1981. The public private partnership programme has been going on strong for three decades, he said. The members of the donors’ family were felicitated. Two recipients spoke about the importance of eye donation and expressed their gratitude to the donor’s family. Eyes should be removed within six hours of one’s death. Those willing to donate eyes of their deceased relatives are requested to contact any one of the following numbers: 28555281/28553840.
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