In their bid to overcome the obstacle of absence of eye banks in rural parts of Pune district, officials of the social welfare department and health department in the region will conduct a one-day training camp for taluka-level medical officers.
These medical officers would be trained in cornea removal surgery. The decision to organise the training camp was taken after considering the hurdle doctors face in collecting and preserving corneas after donation in the absence of eye banks.u00a0
District Social Welfare Officer Sanjay Kadam, “The training would be given next week, considering that the concept of eye donation is fast catching up in the rural areas of the district. Initially, ten medical officers at taluka-level have been chosen for the training camp.”
He added that the department would be providing a cornea removal kit to the medical staff at the taluka-level, helping them preserve corneas which otherwise used to get damaged due to delay in initiating the process.
Doctors from the city-based HV Desai Eye Hospital would be training medical officers. The centre, reportedly, was supposed to sponsor the training camp and to provide cornea surgery kits to the medical officers in the rural parts of the district.
“We didn’t want wait for the funds as the rural areas lacked preservation facilities, which damaged the corneas. Therefore, I sent a proposal suggesting commencement of the training camp at earliest.
Accordingly, the district social department did the needful,” said Dr Sanjeevani Ambekar, head of the department of ophthalmology, B J Medical College and Sassoon Hospital.
Medical Officer D J Jadhav from Loni, who would be attending the training camp, said better preservation techniques might improve the ration of eye donation in rural parts of the district.
“Now, corneas of a dead person would be removed and preserved within the six hours and then according would be transplanted into a needy patient within 48 hours,” Jadhav said.
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According to District Nodal Officer S G Rathod, as many as 1,981 eyes were donated in the district in the year 2012-13, following which 938 visually impaired patients underwent cornea transplant surgeries. He added that in the last five months over 800 people donated eyes in the districtu00a0
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