Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jul 07, 2015 News
– necessary measures could be in place in a year
Guyana’s potential to harvest its own corneas to facilitate transplants is a subject that is currently being discussed. This is according to Director of Ophthalmology at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), Dr. Shailendra Sugrim.
The discussions come at a time when the hospital is getting overseas support from international experts to facilitate corneal transplants. Just last week a team led by renowned surgeon Dr. Rahul Jindal, who is also a kidney transplant surgeon, completed close to a dozen corneal transplants at the GPHC.
But corneal transplants are not a new undertaking at the GPHC, as such procedures have been undertaken previously by Dr. Jindal, and even former Head of the Ophthalmology Department and current Minister of Health, Dr. George Norton. There are reports that there were even earlier corneal transplants done at the public hospital.
However, the shortcoming that remains constant over the years is the availability of corneas. The cornea is the transparent layer forming the front of the eye.
Dr. Sugrim said that it is his hope that efforts to address this limitation could be realised within a year. With the establishment of an Eye Bank, which has been a recommendation by the Jindal-led team, Guyana is expected to address a protracted shortcoming.
“This is the second time that the team is coming to Guyana…the first time they didn’t make any headway but this time they brought the same proposal and we are going to work on it,” said Sugrim of plans to bring into being a local Eye Bank.
Reiterating that the establishment of such a facility would require time to put certain needful measures in place, Dr. Sugrim shared his optimism that the end result would be an Eye Bank that serves not only Guyana, but also the entire Caribbean.
“It might take about a year to get it off the ground but we are now going to start the ball rolling. We need to set up an area; we need to buy equipment; we need to train people to go out and harvest corneas…and once this gets off the ground, we can supply corneas to other countries so if anybody else wants to send (corneas) they can ship these to us, and then we can make it available for use,” informed Dr. Sugrim.
Another important aspect of the process, he noted, would be to commence a process of advertising for people to become organ donors.
Once a person who is an organ donor becomes deceased, for example by way of a vehicular accident, trained technicians would be dispatched to remove their corneas. This process would have to be conducted within about two or three hours of an individual’s demise, according to Dr. Sugrim.
But even before all this could be effected, he highlighted the need for legislations to be put in place to allow for Guyana to harvest, store and by extension, transplant corneas.
Ophthalmologist, Dr. Stephen Waller, who made up part of Jindal’s team, emphasised at a Continuing Medical Education (CME) session at the GPHC last year the importance of having an Eye Bank.
At that forum Dr. Waller disclosed that while donation laws and certification will have to be put in place, Government must also have the “political will” to make such a decision. And in doing so, he is convinced that Government will first have to see the value that could be made available to the citizenry with such a facility.
Dr. Waller is of the firm belief that putting a crucial system as an Eye Bank in place, will not only be a plus for the Guyanese people but he too stressed the possibility of it benefiting the entire Caribbean.
“I think it could be a win-win situation for everybody and yet not cost a lot of money to the Guyanese people…You can get a lot of blind people back on the streets and even working again,” said a confident Dr. Waller.
Instead of simply burying persons with their corneas intact, Dr Waller is convinced that they could be stored by an Eye Bank, similar to what is done for other transplanted organs, with the view of helping those who may have various visual impairments.
However, engaging the process of corneal transplant should never be allowed without first thoroughly analysing and fully knowing the medical history of the donors, Dr. Waller insisted.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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