Family members of 99-year-old Lalita Majithia who died on April 14 this year donated her two eyes to Red-Cross Society to give a fresh lease of life to two others.
When Lalita was 78-years-old, she had lost the vision in her right eye and had regained it through a corneal transplant 23 years ago.
"This was the first incident in my professional career as ophthalmologist that a cornea transplanted to one person was donated and used again for giving vision to another beneficiary,'' Dr P R Munjapara, who gives honorary service to Red Cross Society, said.
He had performed the corneal transplant on Lalita 23 years ago and had later removed both her eyes for donation from her body at the time of her death.
"It was my 2353 eye extraction procedure for donation since 1981 and it was the first such instance of reuse of a donated cornea,'' Dr Munjapara added.
Lalita's great grandson Madhav Majithia, who runs a detergent shop in Bhavnagar said, "Her vision was good till last and she was happy to see and there was no any other vision problem. In fact, she could see four generations of her family together."
Madhav said she had wished to donate her eyes after death for the benefit of two visually impaired people as she herself had regained vision because of a corneal transplant in one eye. "We fulfilled her wish and donated both her eyes,'' he said.
Eye-donation in Bhavnagar started in 1965. The city has witnessed significant progress in spreading awareness about eye donation and body donation by Red-Cross Society. Sources said 4,209 persons have donated their eyes through Red Cross Society.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/mr7sefn
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