Human chain for eye donation

CHENNAI: On a busy morning, student volunteers from Kamarajar Government Girls High School formed a human chain near the Ambattur OT bus terminus to create awareness among people on World Eye Donation Day. Around 200 students from classes 9 and 11 took part in the awareness campaign, displaying placards near the Ambattur OT terminus and Ambattur Railway station road.The human chain was organised by Sankara Nethralaya and Tiruvallur district education department. People these days are less aware of eye donation; they believe that the whole eye would be transplanted after the donor’s death but only layers of cornea are transplanted, said SVG Subramanian, deputy manager of the Hospital’s eye bank.Each human eye has 5 layers of cornea and this can be transplanted to two eyes ignoring the damaged layer. He said age was not a limit for organ donation and there was increasing concern that people wearing spectacles, those who had catract surgeries and, in some cases, BP or diabetes patients could not donate eyes. “This is totally a false propaganda. The entire human eye is not going to be transplanted but only the cornea layers, that too within six hours of the donor’s death”.As a part of World Eye Donation Day, the hospital is planning to conduct more such awareness camps in various parts of the city, he said. People willing to donate their eyes can contact the hospital at 044-28281919 and register. The hospital also conducts awareness programmes in corporate and city hospitals.