Eye Donation – You can see even after your death!
Eye Donation Fortnight :: August 25 - September 08

S Balakrishnan *

Menu Chart

A visit to an eye hospital in Chennai led me to the canteen there as well; in fact, I look forward to visiting the eye hospital more for the tasty and reasonably cheap food at the canteen rather than the longish & thorough eye check-up. What caught my attention at the canteen was the menu board in the style of an Eye Chart that is used to test the visual acuity.

The topmost letter was a big ‘T’ (for tea), the next line was KAPI (coffee, as pronounced in Tamil), third line in a gradually smaller font was dosa, then ginger tea, rose milk and so on; the last line was ‘Udupi dosa’, in smallest font. I was happy I could read all the lines (never mind the proximity), so I ordered ‘keerai vadai’ and kapi to celebrate my ‘improved’ vision!

As I was enjoying the vadai and kapi, my eyes captured some interesting and amazing facts about eyes in general, as displayed there - Human eyes can focus on 50 different things in a second. The only human organ more complex than our eye is the brain. Seeing takes up 50% of brains functionality.

Our eye has amazing healing power; it can filter out dust, dirt and heal scratches in less than 48 hours. 80% of our learning comes through seeing. Our eyes can distinguish approximately 10 million colours. If the human eye was a camera it would have 576 pixels. The iris in our eye has 256 unique characteristics while the fingerprint has only 40. Chameleons can move their eyes in two different directions at once.

While working on computer, follow the 20-20-20 rule; look at some object 20 feet away every 20 minutes for 20 seconds. A worm has no eyes at all. At birth, babies can see only in black, white and some shades of grey. And up to six weeks, babies can’t produce tears. Dogs can’t differentiate between red and green colours. The owls can’t move their eyeballs; instead they turn their head almost around.

Scorpions have 12 eyes and the box jellyfish 24! Dolphins can sleep with one eye open. The night vision of a tiger is six times better than that of a human. The largest eye on the planet belongs to the giant squid; its eye measure as much as 10 inches (25 cms) across, almost the size of a football.

An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain! A dragon fly has 30,000 lenses in its eyes, making it to detect motion very easily; hence it is difficult for predators to catch it.

Well, the eye chart that is used to measure the vision acuity (with or without glasses) is generally called ‘Snellen chart’. This should be viewed from a distance of 20 feet / 6 metres. If one has 20/20 vision, it means one has normal visual acuity. The letters / numbers / symbols on the eye chart in varying sizes are called Optotypes.

The most precious gift one can give – even after death – is the pair of eyes. This gives the power of vision to two people. Just ‘visualise’ how one would feel on getting sight! But the demand for eye transplantation far exceeds the supply of donated eyes.

This could be due to some myths and unfounded beliefs which are busted hereunder – Anyone from the age of 1 (one), irrespective of age, sex, blood group or religion can donate their eyes. Even those having cataract or wearing spectacles can donate eyes.

Similarly, persons suffering from hypertension, diabetes can also donate eyes. People blind from retinal or optic nerve disease can also donate their eyes. Eyes can be donated by the next of kin even if the deceased had not formally pledged their eyes during their lifetime.

Well, who cannot donate their eyes? - Those that died of unknown causes; death due to infectious causes, viz., rabies, syphilis, infectious hepatitis, septicaemia, and AIDS. Any frank ocular infection, previous refractive surgery (Refractive surgery is to improve visual quality and reduce the need for eyeglasses or contact lenses).

Interesting 'eye' facts

Following are the steps to be followed while donating eyes - After pledging to donate your eyes, please inform your family about your wish to donate eyes, so that your wish is fulfilled. Eyes should be donated within 6-8 hours of death.

So inform the nearest eye bank IMMEDIATELY. Switch off the fans and keep the air conditioner or cooler on. Raise the head with the help of a pillow by about 6 inches to decrease bleeding during removal of the eyes. Close the eyes and place wet cotton swab on them. If possible, give antibiotic eye drops periodically.

The Eye Bank team will rush over to where the body is available after death. This is a free service in public interest. The whole procedure takes just 15-20 minutes. There is no disfigurement of the face of the donor. The donated eyes are analyzed, processed at the eye bank and then cornea is transplanted within 96 hours, if found fit. Unfortunately, not all donated eyes are utilised due to poor quality, etc.

What is eye transplantation surgery? A Corneal transplant is a surgery through which the opaque cornea is replaced with a clear cornea obtained from a human donor eye. The cornea is the clear, transparent layer in front of the "black portion" of the eye. It is also the main focusing surface that converges light rays as they enter the eye to focus on the retina.

It is, therefore, the most important part of the optical apparatus of the eye. Loss of transparency directly results in loss of vision. Only the cornea and sclera (The sclera is the white, protective coating of the eye that extends from the cornea to the optic nerve.) can be transplanted.

However, the entire eyeball is removed (enucleated) to enable the corneo-scleral disc to be fashioned surgically in a sterile environment. But there is no disfigurement of the face of the donor.

We felt satisfied of having fulfilled my father’s pledge to donate his eyes when we were informed by the Eye Bank that both his eyes were found fit and transplanted to two people. I wish my eyes too would be donated promptly. So I was worried when the ophthalmologist (it is easier to spell and say ‘eye doctor’) diagnosed glaucoma in my eyes. She assured me that glaucoma was not a cause to reject my eyes. I was greatly relieved.

Kannappa Nayanar is perhaps the first human to donate eyes and transplant it to Lord Shiva Himself! Kannappa Nayanar is one among the 63 Nayanmars (extremely devoted devotees of Lord Shiva in the Tamil Nadu of the yore).

So that the world should know of Kannappa Nayanar’s undoubted devotion to Him, Lord Shiva enacted a drama when the devotee, without any hesitation, donated both his eyes to stop the bleeding of the eyes of a Shivlinga. One can read in detail by googling Kannappa Nayanar. So he was hailed as ‘Kan’nappa Nayanar, as ‘kan’ in Tamil means ‘eye’.

Take sufficient care of your eyes so that they can provide vision to two people even after your death. At the same time, don’t worry too much about your eyes and suffer ‘Ommetaphobia’, the fear of eyes, excess worry about eyes, etc.

And neither should you behave like the cat that closed its eyes and thought that the whole world went dark! Of course, if we were to take an eye for an eye, the whole world would become dark.