VARANASI: The "BHU Eye Bank" at the Regional Institute of Ophthalmology, Banaras Hindu University, received two donated eyes, benefiting four individuals.
rabhavati Devi, a resident of Station Road in Ballia district, passed away on December 6 during treatment in the emergency ward of Sir Sunder Lal Hospital, Banaras Hindu University. After her death, her son, Sunil Kumar "Parkh," a businessman from Ballia, along with his younger brother Rakesh Kumar "Munna" and other family members, expressed their wish to donate her eyes.
Mukesh Srivastava, a close friend of Sunil, immediately contacted Prof. R.P. Maurya, the head of the department and chairman of the BHU Eye Bank. Under Prof. Maurya's guidance, the BHU Eye Bank team, including Dr. Priyanka Singh, Banka Prateek Kumar Singh, and Ashutosh Tripathi, facilitated the posthumous eye donation of Prabhavati Devi without delay.
The two donated corneas helped four patients.
Devi from Chandauli district, who had a cataract along with corneal opacity, underwent a triple procedure corneal transplant by RIO chief Prof. V.P. Singh on Saturday, while the second donated cornea was successfully transplanted to another woman from Kamalgarh, Varanasi, by Prof. R.P. Maurya on Monday.
Instead of discarding the removed opaque cornea, Prof. Maurya transplanted it into a man, Birbal, from Ghazipur, who had a corneal ulcer due to an eye injury. Prof. Maurya explained that Birbal's eye would not deteriorate further and he would regain some vision.
This method is known as therapeutic keratoplasty, which involves replacing damaged corneal tissue with healthy donor cornea.
The director of the Institute of Medical Sciences, Prof. S.N. Sankhwar, and the medical superintendent of Sir Sunder Lal Hospital, Prof. K.K. Gupta, congratulated RIO chief Prof. V.P. Singh, department head and BHU Eye Bank chairman Prof. R.P. Maurya, and their team for providing sight to four needy individuals through the donation of two corneas from a deceased donor.
They also thanked the donor's family for their noble and virtuous act of eye donation.