RTI shows over 700 eyes donated to medical college remained unused
8 Jan, 2014An application was filed with the Dr. SN Medical College, Jodhpur under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking to get the information regarding the number of eyes donated to the medical college since its establishment i.e. 1965 and the number of eyes utilized in transplantation.
The reply from the college, however, contained data for only sixteen years from 1996 to 2011. The data obtained in the reply shows that the college received 1,805 eyes as donations during the 16-year period. However, only 1,063 of them were used in transplantation. The RTI reply didn’t mention anything about the rest 742 eyes donated to the medical college. Later on, the medical college administration said that the remaining eyes were either infected, unfit for a transplant or were used for dissection by postgraduate students. The number of patients waiting for a healthy cornea is high and some of the patients have been waiting for years to get even a single cornea.
The state government of Rajasthan has now set up a three-member committee, headed by Jodhpur divisional commissioner, to investigate the missing eyes. The committee has to submit the report within three days following which proper actions will be taken.