RAWALPINDI: Al-Shifa Trust President retired Maj-Gen Rehmat Khan on Monday urged people to donate corneas, pointing out that in the previous 30 years, only two people had donated corneas.

He said that corneal contributions had the potential to give a fresh lease of life to thousands of people, as 9,000 people were on the trust’s waiting list for corneal transplants.

He noted that the trust receives 800 corneal donations annually and has increased its capacity accordingly.

However, the majority on the waiting list have to wait for years to get their vision restored.

According to Rehmat Khan, there is a significant disparity between supply and demand of cornea in Pakistan and throughout the world, with corneal blindness accounting for up to 15pc of all cases of blindness.

He informed the media representatives that Americans provide corneal donations for Pakistani patients because residents are reluctant to volunteer for this charitable endeavour.

According to him, in August 2018, the first-ever eye bank was formed at the trust’s Rawalpindi premises with the assistance of the American organisation Eversight. There, individuals can submit their wills to donate corneas.

He said because corneal donations in the country are so few, 53pc of eye patients lack access to donated corneas; as a result, corneas must be imported from the US and Sri Lanka.

A cornea is one of the simplest tissues to transplant because the donor and recipient do not need to match.

He said it is a bloodless tissue that absorbs oxygen straight from the atmosphere.

He went on to say that corneas from the elderly can be removed and transplanted into the eyes of much younger people. According to Rehmat Khan, the Al-Shifa Trust has begun corneal transplants at its Sukkar hospital in addition to its Rawalpindi facility.

In Sukkar Hospital, 50 corneal transplants have been completed successfully to date free of cost. Eighty percent of all surgeries performed at the Al-Shifa eye hospitals in Rawalpindi, Sukkar, Kohat, Muzaffarabad, and Chakwal are free of charge. So far, the trust has performed over one million different eye surgeries.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2024