Despite a high accident-related death rate in the
Millennium City, instances of cornea retrieval from accident victims
remains minimal.
The Niramaya Charitable Trust, which
has been running Y.P. Mahindru Niramaya Eye Bank since 2007, has now
taken up the matter with the district police administration seeking
their cooperation in retrieving corneas from accidents victims with the
consent of their relatives.
“On an average, one
person is killed in road accident in Gurgaon every day and most of them
are young. Still the cornea retrieval rate is dismal and the reason is
lack of awareness among the stakeholders. The cornea needs to be
harvested within 6-7 hours of death, but most of the corneas are wasted
due to delay in post-mortem. The delay is mostly in cases where the
death occurs late in the evening or at night. So we took up the matter
with Police Commissioner Alok Mittal to allow us to harvest the cornea
even before the post-mortem,” said Y. P. Mahindru Niramaya Eye Bank
medical director Hitendra Ahooja.
This practice
already exists in States like Andhra Pradesh and Maharasthra, said Dr.
Ahooja, adding that it could be replicated in Gurgaon as well. “Eyes are
preserved only in cases where the deceased has an eye-related injury,
which is not the case most of the times. If the civil hospital doctor
conducting the post-mortem allows the retrieval and the police give its
consent, it can be done. There are no legal hurdles and even the Organ
Transplant Act permits it.”
Dr. Ahooja said the
police can play another important role of talking to the deceased’s kin
on whether they are interested in eye-donation and pass on the
information to the hospital, Dr. Ahooja said: “Most of the people are
interested. Also we have infrastructure in Gurgaon to preserve the
cornea and transplant it. A little awareness is all that is required. At
the national level too, the picture is dismal with just 30,000-odd
transplants compared to two million patients.”
Police
Commissioner Alok Mittal has demanded that the trust give its request
in writing and also attach papers showing that the practice is already
in vogue in other States of India.