PEDDAPALLI: A rural medical practitioner by profession, Merugu Bheeshma Chary, who is also the district president of Telangana Eye and Organ Body Donation Association and the Sadashya Foundation, has made it his life’s mission to give the gift of sight to visually impaired persons. Speaking to TNIE, Bheeshma Chary says he started this initiative after his aunt donated her corneas.
In the seven years since then, he has helped facilitate 120 corneal transplantations in Odela mandal alone. To achieve this, he has conducted more than 200 awareness programmes to motivate people into donating their corneas and other organs. This has resulted in three organs and two body donations.
The National Blindness and Visual Impairment Survey 2019 reported that corneal blindness was the leading cause of blindness among people aged less than 50 years in India, accounting for 37.5 per cent of the cases and was the second leading cause of blindness among people above the age of 50 years.
Bheeshma Chary was especially busy between August 25 to September 8 as Odela mandal observed the National Eye Donation Fortnight. “My goal is to create public awareness about the importance of eye donation and encourage people to pledge their eyes for donation,” he says.
The corneas from one person can help restore the sight of two persons, he adds. With his initiatives, Odela mandal has climbed to the top of list in eye donations. While a lot of people are actually interested to help people, the lack of awareness stops many.