Eye donation of late actor has already given the gift of vision to four people
Kannada actor Puneeth Rajkumar’s eye donation has not only gifted vision to four people, but may also help many others regain their sight in the future. Doctors at Narayan Nethralaya, who collected the late actor’s cornea, said corneal epithelial stem cells are being cultured to treat people who can lose vision due to eye injuries like cracker burns, chemical and acid injuries.
Following in the footsteps of his father Dr Rajkumar, Puneet Rajkumar’s family donated their eyes on 29 October. Soon after he was declared dead, Puneet Rajkumar’s brother Raghavendra called Dr. Rajkumar Eye Bank, which is run by Narayana Nethralaya. Actor’s eyes. Dr. Rajkumar donated the eyes for his entire family during the opening ceremony of the Eye Bank in 1994.
The doctors, who cut corneas and transplanted them into four corneal blind patients, said each eye was used to treat two patients by separating the superior and deeper layers of the cornea.
Chairman and Managing Director of Narayana Nethralaya K. Bhujang Shetty said that the superior layer was implanted in two patients who had superficial corneal disease, and only the deep layer was transplanted in patients with endothelial or deep corneal layer disease.
“In addition, the limbal rim (the white part of the eye near the periphery of the cornea), which was not used for transplantation, was cultured in our laboratory to generate ‘induced pluripotent stem cells’ for potential use in patients with limbal disease.” Stem cell deficiency, cracker burns, chemical injuries, acid burns and other serious disorders,” said the doctor. Hindu on Monday.
“The process will take another three weeks. Although the exact number of people who will be treated using stem cells is not yet specified, we are hopeful that this could help at least ten others. Typically, two corneas from a deceased person are transplanted into two corneal blind patients. But, we are going out of our way to honor the contribution made by his family to make the most of Puneet’s corneal tissue,” said the doctor.
Huge jump in eye donation
The late actor’s eye donation has inspired many people resulting in a huge increase in eye donation in the last fortnight. Dr. Shetty said that Dr. Rajkumar Eye Bank has received about 8,000 eye pledges in the last fortnight.
“Every day we see crowds of people in the hospital announcing the pledge of the eyes. We got 3,100 pledges at the Palace Ground event organized by his family on the occasion of the 11th day ceremony. In the last fortnight, the families of 20 deceased persons donated a total of 40 corneas. The late actor’s eye donation has rekindled the spirit of eye donation in Karnataka,” said Dr Shetty.
Stating that eye donations had literally stopped during the first four months of the pandemic, Dr Shetty said: “Though donations were increasing this year, we had not even managed to reach 40% of the collections during the past. COVID-19 era. This is the first time we are seeing a huge response after a donation from a deceased donor,” he said.
,