Madurai: Sivaganga MCH to begin eye transplant procedures soon

Madurai: ‘Hospital Cornea Retrieval Program’, an eye donation initiative organized by the Government Sivaganga Medical College Hospital (GSMCH) in association with Aravind Eye Hospitals (AEH), Madurai, was inaugurated on Monday.

A human eye can be donated if it is removed within six hours after a person’s death. “Initially, GSMCH will donate the eyes for transplantation and the procedure will be performed at AEH. Within a few months, the procedure will be done at GSMCH itself. We will train a team of doctors for the process and the infrastructure required would be set up here itself by then and only the processing of the eye will be done by AEH, free of cost,” explained dean of GSMCH, Dr A Rathinavel.

Many organ donations and transplants, like the kidney, require an organisational structure at the state level, but eye donations and transplants involve a simpler process. “In this case, since we can remove the eye only from a dead person, all we need is consent from the patient’s kin. This can be managed at the institutional level. We’ve reached out to local groups,” said Rathinavel.

On Monday, Dr N Venkatesh Prajna, opthalmology director, Aravind Eye Hospitals and Rathinavel inaugurated the programme at a special event held on the GSMCH campus. “We’re having public-private partnerships with many government medical colleges. We reached out to GSMCH especially because we want to help start corneal transplantation in Sivaganga as well. The first step is to create awareness,” said Prajna. A special helpline number (7598520007) for eye donation was also released for the public to contact.