Kannada film star Puneeth Rajkumar’s eyes have provided sight to four young people, probably the first such case in Karnataka. On Monday, Dr Bhujang Shetty, chairman and managing director of Narayana Nethralaya, said the transplant was done using sophisticated technology.
Speaking about the same, Shetty said: ‘We collected the eyes on Friday, the day he died, and they were transplanted the very next day. Generally, we transplant donated eyes to two persons but in Puneeth’s case, we were able to give sight to four youths.’
Dr Bhujang Shetty further said: ‘What was unique is that we used each eye to treat two patients by separating the superior and deeper layers of the cornea. The superior layer was transplanted to two patients who had a superficial corneal disease and only the deeper layer was transplanted to patients with endothelial or deep corneal layer disease. Hence, we conducted four different transplants from two corneas to restore the vision of four patients. This has not been done earlier in our state to the best of my knowledge.’
‘Besides this, the limbal rim (white part of the eye near the circumference of the cornea), which was not used for the transplants, has been sent to our laboratory to generate ‘Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells’ for potential use in patients with Limbal Stem Cell Deficiency, chemical injuries, acid burns and other serious disorders,’ he added.
Also Read: Ex-Miss World Manushi Chhillar to be part of UNICEF youth campaign
Dr Yathish Shivanna, Dr Sharon D’Souza, and Dr Harsha Nagaraj performed the procedures under the supervision of Dr Rohit Shetty and with the help of the rest of the cornea team. It should be noted that Puneeth’s father, Dr Rajkumar, had his eyes donated following his death in 2006. After Puneeth’s mother’s death in 2017, her eyes (Parvathamma Rajkumar) were also donated.
Post Your Comments