Ranchi: Bihar Eye Bank Trust, a registered charitable trust having its unit at Bariatu here, will generate awareness among police officers the need to harvest corneas of accident victims who had donated their eyes before conducting their autopsies.
"Autopsy, which is a must for accident deaths, takes around six hours. But by that time, the cornea becomes unfit for harvesting even if the victim had pledged to donate his eyes," said trust secretary Pronoti Sinha here on Friday.
"The amended Human Organ Transplant Act, 2011, states that cornea can be harvested from bodies of mishap victims before post-mortem if doctors give in writing that eyes will not be required for it. Efforts can be made with the help of SPs to harvest cornea from such victims," she added.
On the occasion of World Eye Donation Day on June 10, the trust will organise a weeklong awareness programme and get 1,000 people to sign a pledge that they would donate their eyes after death.
Trust treasurer Siddhartha Ghosh and executive committee member S.S. Dubey were also present at the news meet.
The Trust runs Jharkhand Eye Bank Hospital and Research Centre on its office premises where around 100 patients are treated for various vision-related ailments every day.
