Eye Collection must be Considered a Deemed Consent – Minister Alphonse Kannanthanam
Kerala: Project Vision, a movement of the Claretians of Bangalore, inaugurated three collection centres in the Wayanad district of Kerala, in collaboration with three catholic hospitals in the district. The Catholic Church has been promoting the eye donation movement through Project Vision, based in Bangalore.
Minister inaugurating the eye collection centre
Alphonse Kannanthanam, Union Minister for Tourism, called for a new law that can make the collection of eyes a responsibility of all the citizens. He proposed that eye collection must be considered as a deemed consent in all cases unless clearly expressed otherwise. He called for the support of all political parties to enact such a law.
Minister Alphonse Kannanthanam was speaking at the inauguration of the first Eye Collection Centres in Wayanad in a function at the Fathima Hospital, Kalapatta, Wayanad, Kerala. The three eye centres for Wayanad are located at Fathima Mission Hospital, Kalpatta, Good Shepherd Hospital, Vythiri and St Martin’s Hospital, Ampalavayal.
Message by the Minister at the function
Shasheedran MLA, offered his assistance to have a vehicle for eye collection for the district from his MLA fund in his message at the program. District Panchayat President K B Naseema, who participated in the program offered all her support to the movement.
Presiding over the function, Fr George Kannanthanam, founder of Project Vision said that Wayanad District for the first time is getting an opportunity to donate eyes through the three eye collection centres. A phone number has been created for anyone to access this facility – 6235002244. He requested the minister to create a national phone number for eye collection.
Josy being felicitated by the Minister
Fr Reju Kannanpuzha, Asst Director of Little Flower Hospital said that Eye Collection centres will be linked to the Little Flower Eye Hospital in Angamali. They will provide all the technical support for this project. He said that everyone can donate their eyes. It has to be collected within six hours. It is a free gift and there is no money involved in eye donation.
Josy, who has been trained for eye collection was felicitated on the occasion. Various organisations who were organising partners for the BlindWalk program organised by Project Vision in 2017 were also felicitated on the occasion.
Eyes have to be collected within six hours of death. They can be collected from the hospital or from the houses. There are no limitations for eye donations. People of all ages, those using spectacles, and those with diseases can also donate their eyes. The consent of the surviving family is the only requirement. This is a free donation that involves no money.
Only corneas will be collected from the eyes and not the whole eye. Thus there won’t be any disfigurement for the person after eye donation. This is a small operation that will take only about 15 minutes. Eyes can also be collected from the mortuary.
Visually challenged Fathima Anshi being felicitated by the Minister
India has the largest number of blind persons in the world with 15 million of them. 20% of them could get sight through eye donations. But there were only 918 persons who donated eyes in Kerala in 2017.
Twenty-three nursing students of the Fathima Matha Nursing School were given the graduation certificates at the program.
Fr Thomas Therakam, Patron of Project Vision, Wayanad Unit gave the welcome address and Fr Sebastian Adichilath, the Director of Fathima Hospital proposed the vote of thanks.
