PLEDGE YOUR EYES

HISTORY

In the early days the main reason why Eye Banks were not very successful in India was because of the lack of awareness. Eye transplant in the late 1970s and 1980s in India was a rather complicated affair. It was against many odds that new eye care teams such as team Sankara worked during those early years. Preservation techniques were not very advanced, the ratio of donors to recipients was very poor and modest transport connections between places added to the woes. Many of the live corneas came from Sri Lanka – with a high Buddhist population, the island nation’s people believed that donating at least one organ was vital to attain salvation. However, these could be preserved only for 72 hours and often, the cost of transportation would be far greater than the cost of the transplant itself! Many eye banks had been set up but owing to logistic and other inconveniences, these ideas were abandoned almost soon after they had begun. Setting up an eye bank was rarely encouraged or dreamed of. But one man did. The year was 1985. Dr. R.V. Ramani and his wife, Dr. Radha Ramani had spent the last eight years offering subsidised medical care to a host of people at the Kanchi Kamakoti Medical Centre. With contributions from philanthropists and help from the medical fraternity, the centre grew to one of the most eminent health care centres in Coimbatore. Our dream of establishing an eye care medical institute happened because we believed that we could make a tangible difference to people’s lives. And slowly, the rewards came trickling in. Soon, voluntary donations happened and now the Sankara Eye Bank has become one of the model eye banks for the entire nation.