Eye donation programme through faith leaders
- HV Desai Eye Hospital, Hadapsar, Pune, India
- Dr P Gogate, Department of Community Eye Care, HV Desai Eye Hospital, Pune, India 411028; parikshitgogate{at}hotmail.com
- Accepted 17 February 2008
There is a huge shortfall of corneas in most developing countries, and approximately five million people are blind due to corneal disease.1 While all corneal opacities may not be amenable to keratoplasty, a large percentage certainly would be.2 There are numerous barriers for collection of eyes, as they have to be collected only after death and within a few hours of death. Hospital-based cornea retrieval programme (HCRP) and home deaths are the two sources of corneas for eye banks.3–5 Traditionally eye banks have focused on HCRP as a trained counsellor cum social worker can counsel relatives of the deceased in a hospital environment and explain to them the benefits (both medical and moral) behind eye donation. Although the approach has been cynically termed “vulture” like, it is nonetheless effective and utilises scarce human …
