Daily Times

KARACHI: Forty-year old Muhammad Shafiq from Karachi’s Nusrat Bhutto colony has been living in dark before his cornea surgery last week.

After a successful transplant at Pakistan Eye Bank Society Hospital (PEBS) Karachi, he got light and now can see everything around him . Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent of North America (APPNA) has gifted the corneas to PEBS.

“I have been living in dark through my forty years life, as I was blind with my left eye while can see a very thin light from the right,” he said.

In a joyful and exciting posture he went on and said, “I come in light and see everything with my own without any other’s help to walk or find things even I was not able to see the things in proximity.”

“Men andhere se ujalay me aagaya,” jubilant Shafiq told this scribe.

Twelve United States-donated corneas were transplanted at PEBS during June and July.

“We received five corneas in June and seven in July from APNNA which were successfully transplanted to the patients. Human organs are precious and priceless. APNNA bear all the handling and transportation charges,” said Dr Qazi Wasiq, the medical director of Pakistan Eye Bank Society Hospital.

According to senior ophthalmologist, it costs 1,000 USD to transfer a single cornea to Pakistan from USA. Similarly it costs around 30 USD to transport a single cornea to Pakistan from Sri Lanka,” Dr Wasiq added.

Sri Lanka is the leading donor country to Pakistan and has donated around 16,000 corneas to Pakistan so far, he told.

Corneal blinds are mainly linked to industrial hazards. Industrial hazards lead to corneal infections. In women it is done because of contact lenses. However corneal loses can be removed through transplant with the subject to the availability of the tissues.

“Cornea transplant is the only solution for cornea blind persons,” Dr Wasiq added. “Our requirement is very high and donation is meager. Since tissues are not available locally therefore most of them could not be transplanted . Until local tissues are available, we have to depend on foreign donations,” he explained.

As per estimate, in Pakistan there are more than 200, 000 cornea-blind patients waiting for organ donations.

Cornea surgery is a costly affair and takes around PKR 300,000 per surgery if held at country’s private healthcare units. “However at PEBS, we provide free of charge transplant and medicines,” Dr Wasiq added.

This ailment can be greatly attributed to the poor segment of the society as they can not afford the cost so it is very necessary to provide poor needy with free of cost corneas, he concluded.

Published in Daily Times, July 16^th , 2017.