BENGALURU: While pledges for eye donation are picking up by the day, each public healthcare centre in the state has been given a target to get pledge cards to donate eyes from 75 people, on the occasion of ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’, and the 37th eye donation fortnight held between August 25 and September 8. As many as 7,163 people have pledged to donate their eyes from August 25 this year.
Minister of Health and Family Welfare Dr K Sudhakar launched a walkathon hosted by the health department to create awareness for eye donation on Monday. The families of a few donors were also felicitated on the occasion.
Prof Rohit Shetty, Vice Chairman of Narayana Nethralaya, said that with advanced technology, and with each eyeball being donated, two layers of cornea can be transplanted for two blind people, with cornea-related problems. The sclera (white) part of each eyeball can be transplanted for one person with an eyeball problem. Hence, a person donating a pair of eyeballs can gift vision to four people, he said.
According to Dr Shakila N, Joint Director, Ophthalmology, State Health Department, as many as 12,058 people have pledged to donate their eyes and 2,674 eyeballs have been donated to eye banks from April 2022 to July 2022. Last year, 5,804 eyeballs were donated and 9,413 people pledged to donate eyes from April 2021 to March 2022.
In 2020-21, only 1,806 eyeballs were donated and 76 people had pledged to donate eyes. The number of eyeballs collected and pledges were lesser that year due to the pandemic. Inspired by late actor Puneeth Rajkumar’s eye donation, the number of people pledging their eyes has increased, officials said.