Spencer's Eye Hospital resumes corneal transplantation after 12 years

After a gap of around 12 years, the Spencer Eye Hospital (SEH) located in Lyari neighbourhood of the metropolis has resumed corneal transplantation. The City Mayor Waseem Akhtar on Friday inaugurated the Corneal Transplantation and Laser-Assisted Cataract Surgery department at the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation run hospital.
He said that four corneal blinds will be operated every month. In the initial phase, he said the Lions Club of Pakistan has gifted four corneas to the hospital that have been imported from Sri Lanka. Experts say that corneal transplantation is a surgical procedure where a damaged or diseased cornea is replaced by donated corneal tissue. In order to ensure maximum medical facilities for patients in Spencer Eye Hospital, a committee of Medical Superintendent (MS) and experienced doctors is being formed with immediate effect. The committee will come up with advices and suggestions to run the hospital in an effective way.
Special arrangements have also been made in the hospital to import corneas form Sri Lanka. There is a tremendous need of corneal donation from abroad, he added. KMC will seek for four corneas every month to transplant these in the eyes of four patients, he said. He asked well offs to come forward and offer their services for betterment of medical and health facilities in the city.
In private hospitals, he said, the corneal transplantation costs around Rs150,000, however, the same transplantation facility will be available in Spencer Eye Hospital against Rs50,000. Waseem said that the Spencer Eye Hospital was once considered to be one of the most reputed hospitals in Asia for eye diseases as some 70,000 patients restored their eyesight from the very health facility. However, he said due to financial constrains and negligence of the then administrations, and consistent violence in the area the corneal transplantation facility remained suspended for about 12 years.
He recalled that patients not only from the parts of the country including Balochistan, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan but also from Iran, Afghanistan etc. used to visit this hospital for treatment on affordable charges. Metropolitan Commissioner Dr Syed Saif-ur-Rehman, Senior Director Health and Medical Services Dr Birbal Cenani, philanthropist Faisal Eidhi, Lions Club of Pakistan's Abu Karim, and others were also present at the ceremony.