Let us not turn Blind, to Blindness
I came across this piece
of statistical information, from one of the websites, which I wish to share
with you with a fond hope that you may like to consider the idea of donating
your eye, after your death.
Eye donation is still not very popular among us Indians, because it involves an action after our death and very often considered a social taboo.
“There are currently an estimated 15 million blind people in India. 6.8 million of these suffer from corneal blindness with vision less than 6/60 in at least one eye, and of these, about 1 million have bilateral corneal blindness. If the present trend continues, it is expected that the number of corneally blind individuals in India will increase to 10.6 million by 2020. Of these at least 3 million can be benefited by corneal transplantation. Thus, to effectively meet the ever growing demand, we need around 150,000 corneal transplants to be performed every year. However, the current supply is only 22000 corneas per year. “
Now this gives a great
scope for many blind people to see, if more number of people volunteered to
donate their eyes after death.
Of the many type of
physically handicapped people, I come across in life, I have had a special
empathy for the blind. Eyes are the windows to the world and it is quiet
unimaginable to live a life, not experiencing the beauty of seeing God’s
creations.
In my school days, I was a
member of the Interact Club – the junior wing of the Rotary Club. During this
period as a member, I used to visit the blind school on specified days and
spend some time with inmates of the blind school. I used to serve their need of
communicating with their loved ones, by writing letters on their behalf. As
they dictate word by word, I pen them down, in inland letter sheets or post
cards , which is then sent out. In these moments, I have been able to
experience their pain and emotions, as they share their thoughts and feelings
through their letters. I cherished doing such acts of service, for it gave me a great amount of soul satisfaction.
It is at that age, I decided that I will donate my eyes to a blind person, when
I die.
In my first year of
college, on my 19th birthday, I visited the Sankara Nethralaya
Hospital at Chennai and informed them about my willingness to donate my eyes.
They gave me a form and asked me to fill it up. After which they gave me a
small card, which says, “I am an eye donor” with the name and phone number of
the hospital. They asked me to retain this card, in my wallet. It is like carrying ‘a will in your
packet’. I felt as if I have done a
heroic deed, on that day. Only a little later in life, I realized that donating
our eyes is not in our hands, but in the hands of our family members.
So along with donating our
eyes, comes two additional responsibilities.
No.2, we need to take care
of the eyes, we have volunteered to donate, by eating the right food, taking
good rest and keeping it in ideal condition, so that it is useable.
Donating our eyes could be
one of the noblest act of service we could do, because it can light up someone’s
world with infinite possibilities. Let our eyes, that would otherwise be burned
or buried along with our corpse, go for a better cause.
If this article could
convince at least a few readers to donate their eyes, I feel I have travelled a
extra mile in spreading the noble cause.
D. Senthil Kannan,
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