Gift of Vision
By Limana Solaiman
One fine day, you may wake up and see that something is not right. You may find that the eye infection which you contacted the previous week is leaving its toll. You may realise that you have started to lose vision in your infected eye. You stop all the other things going on in your life and rethink your priorities. You drop out of the play you were supposed to be leading. You miss your final exams and run to the doctor to find a solution. This is exactly what happened to 30-year-old Mohammad Mohiuddin Khan, who started losing his vision when he was just 24.
I wish I could express the morbid feeling I had when I first realised what was happening. At present, I am still a Masters student at Titumir College (in Dhaka), but I am not sure whether I will be able to complete my education. So far, I have appeared for three exams, but I had to stop. I am unemployed and need help. I need someone to believe in me and hire me, Khan told this correspondent recently.
Like Khan, there are many others who need cornea transplants, but are unable to get the operation due to lack of donor corneas in our country. Social stigmas and taboos related to religion prevent people from becoming donors.
To address the problem, a group of medical students established Sandhani National Eye Donation Society in 1977 with the aim of helping people like Khan who are in desperate need of cornea transplants. Sandhani has acquired a total of 3,987 corneas over the past 40 years, of which only 116 came from voluntary donors, while the rest were collected from unclaimed dead bodies.
M Saiful Islam Chowdhury, coordinator, Sandhani National Eye Donation Society, said: Our national plan is to eradicate corneal blindness from Bangladesh. We have a target to collect 6,000 transplantable corneas within the next two years. In order to reach that target, we have taken up a project, named A National Programme to Alleviate Corneal Blindness from Bangladesh. Rotary International is helping us in this venture. That means 10 American, one Indian and one Bangladeshi Rotary clubs are engaged in it. Besides those clubs, TBI (Tissue Bank International), now known as Keralink, and IFEB (International Federation of Eye Banks) are allied with us in this project.
To make it a success, we are going to train 800 medical students. We will choose the students from those who are associated with Sandhani. Nevertheless, if any medical student from outside our society wants join, they are most welcome. They will be taught how to collect corneas and will receive training on grief counselling. In some cases, we cannot take a donated cornea. The reason behind this is the donors medical history. For example, if a person had HIV, hepatitis-C or an STD, we refrain from taking their cornea. Before commencing with the collection, we review the (donors) medical charts thoroughly. Normally, we can collect the cornea within six to eight hours after a person dies, unless the body is preserved. When we remove the cornea, we replace it with an artificial one so that there is no disfigurement of the eyes, Chowdhury said.
People have a wrong notion that in some religions it is prohibited to donate organs, like corneas. In reality, there is no actual base to this claim. For example, the Makkah-based Sharia Committee has given their permission on the matter. Al-Azhar University in Egypt also announced that donating your corneas after your death can be considered as a deed of virtue. Some people of the Islamic Foundation in our country have tried to spread our word, but there are some radicals who, without knowing the truth, say the opposite. There is no mention in the Holy Quran and Hadith about not donating corneas. Just by donating your cornea, you are creating an opportunity for someone else to see this beautiful world that Allah has created, he added.
On September 28, we organised a workshop, which was conducted by three medical experts from three different countries and religious backgrounds _ India, Iran and the USA. Some 150 medical students attended the programme. The Iranian expert said in the Muslim world, Iran is ahead of everyone when it comes to cornea donation and the number of cornea transplants they do each year. There are some foundations that import corneas, but that is costly. At Sandhani, we charge as little as Tk17, 000 to carry out a transplant surgery. We do not take any fee, but we have to pay the transplant surgeons, so we are unable to waive that charge, Chowdhury said.
Nasir Uddin, 36, lost his vision at the age of 17. Six months ago, he applied for a cornea. I am yet to receive any good news from Sandhani. They told me it might take six months to a year to get the surgery. I call them regularly, but they say they will inform me when they have some good news. I cannot work and am living with my parents. Without by familys support, I would not have survived. I contacted Harun Eye Foundation, but it will take about Tk 200,000 to have the transplant surgery. I do not have that kind of money. I pray to Allah that one day I might be able to see again.
About the number of people waiting for a cornea transplant, Chowdhury said: At the moment, there are over a 1,000 applicants waiting in line to receive corneal grafts, but we are falling short. We have a set of rules that helps us decide who gets a cornea. For example, we check the time frame in which the patient had applied. We prioritise children, especially girls who are reaching adulthood, and also individuals who need a transplant immediately.
The late writer, Humayun Ahmed, made a one-minute documentary on Sandhani National Eye Donation Society, where several well-known actors participated. The documentary is on YouTube, and you have to type Eye Donation Bangladesh to find the video, Chowdhury concluded. n
Photos: Courtesy.
