AWARENESS ON NATIONAL EYE DONATION FORTNIGHT -Dr. Agarwal’s Eye Hospital,

“‘WALKATHON HELD’ BY DRKG'A‘RWAI’S’EYE HOSPITAL TO CREATE AWARENESS ON NATIONAL EYE DONATION FORTNIGHT

Dr. Agarwal’s Eye Hospital, Bengaluru, observes National Eye Donation Fortnight by organizing a Walkathon

To highlight the need to create awareness on eye donation over 200 school students participated in walkathon to encourage people to donate eyes in a way to emphasise the importance of donating eyes, and preventing blindness, patients who underwent Eye Transplant from Dr Agarwal’s eye hospital joined to_ walk along with the participants  Traffic Police from Bengaluru City came forward to Donate Eyes '

Dr. Agarwal’s Eye Hospital, Bengaluru, organized a walkathon to raise awareness regarding eye donation from Coles Road to Goodwill School. About 200 students from Goodwill Girls High School, St. Joseph's Convent Girls High School, Patients who underwent Eye Transplant, Hospital staff and other members of the public participated and pledged to donate their eyes. The walkathon was flagged off by Chief Guest DIG Ravi Kanthe Gowda, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police. The chief guest ensured to support the cause for donating eyes on behalf of the department by filling the necessary documents and encouraged the students and his team to support a noble cause.

DIG Ravi Kanthe Gowda, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police said, “Eye donation is rarely . spoken & encouraged in our country. To help build awareness in this area, I am delighted to . support Dr. Agarwal’s Eye Hospital in their drive for eye donation among the young students. On this occasion, I also pledge to donate my eyes and will request every individual to be a responsible citizen and help someone see the world by donating their eyes."

Speaking on the increase cases of blindness, Dr Ram Mirlay, Head, Clinical Services, Dr. Agarwal's Eye Hospital, said, “Karnataka is among Top 5 states for Visual disability and 9.5 Lakhs Blind in Karnataka. One out of every three blind person in the world lives in India and if just 1% of Indian population pledged to donate its eyes, the supply of corneas would be enough to completely cure the incidence of eye blindness in the country and more than 2.5 lakh blind people in India could regain eyesight if they get a corneal transplant. This drive will spread the message on the importance of eye don'ation.” ”

Supporting the eye donation drive, Dr. Archana 5Head, Clinical Services Dr. Agarwal’s Eye Hospital, Bengaluru, said, “Eye donation drives helps in building awareness among people. In India, we have about 4.6 million people with corneal biindness and this is expected to increase to 10 million by 2020. Currently there is a huge gap among the number of people awaiting corneal transplant and the available donors in our country. Hence we need to increase the number of eye donations in India.”

Present at the eye donation drive, Dr. Raghu Nagaraju Senior ConsuItant, Ophthalmologist.  We need to increase the number of eye banks in Karnataka across Tier I & Tier II cities. which will reduce the transportation duration since the cornea has to be collected at the right time, stored promptly and transplanted as soon as possible. To tackle the problem of blindness, all government-run district hospitals must have a corneal specialized surgeon. Hospitals in these cities has a high demand of ophthalmologists because of the growing cases in blindness. Additionally, the hospitals heed to work closely with the government to build infrastructure that is needed for corneal transplantation across government-run medical colleges.”

Talking about the growing cases of Corneal transplantation, Dr. Sanjana Vatsa,Consultant Opthalmologist, Dr. Agarwal Eye Hospital said, “There were patients who had advanced Keratoconus in both eyes and cornea showed intacs removal scars in both eyes, with fundus normal in both eyes. Those patients have been advised for corneal transplantation and we did the surgeries successfully through the help of available corneas at that time. It is not always that "7-th cornea mrtimeerhis-be'eomes morecritical for us to Greate awarenesson eye demtion.‘

About Dr. Agarwal's Eye Hospital:

Dr. Agarwal's Eye Hospital .a comprehensive eye hospital offering a one-stop solution for eye ailments: was started in the year 1957. Now the hospital is in its 61St year of offering quality services in eye care. It has 31 hospitals in Tamil Nadu and a visible footprint in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Kamataka. OdiSha. Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andaman, West Bengal, and Rajasthan. A tertiary eye care centre at Mauritius marks its first step towards establishing an international presence extended upto 13 branches covering the Indian Ocean region. African countries and East Asia.