Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Lending light... after death

Staff Reporter

Thiruvananthapuram: Peerukannu of Beemapally, who had lost his sight at the age of three following an illness, regained his sight through a corneal grafting.

The surgery was performed by Suseela Prabhakaran, chief ophthalmic surgeon at Divya Prabha Eye hospital in the city. Peerukannu has fully regained his eye-sight after the surgery performed on February 6.

This was possible because of the eye donation initiative that had been taken by C.P. Balaraman of Puthupally, Kayamkulam, who wanted his eyes to lend light to another person after his death. It was Balaraman's nephew who ensured that his uncle's wish did become a reality.

For those who lose eye sight because of corneal blindness, the only hope of recovering their sight is through eye donation.

Despite awareness campaigns encouraging people to bequeath their eyes after death, there has been a perpetual shortage of cornea for grafting. Even though many people do sign the eye donation forms, in most of the cases, the relatives of the donor refuses or neglects to take the initiative to complete the eye donation formalities.

This is the first corneal grafting surgery that Dr. Suseela Prabhakaran has done after her retirement as the Director of the Regional Institute of Ophthalmology a few years ago.

This just goes to indicate the time lag before a person can hope for a corneal graft to recover from his blindness, Dr. Suseela Prabhakaran said in a statement here.

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