Spencer Eye Hospital to resume corneal transplantation

KARACHI: Spencer Eye Hospital of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) is resuming corneal transplants after a gap of 12 years. According to Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar, work on this has already begun and the corneal transplant department will be opened within a week.



The mayor revealed these details during a meeting with the three-member delegation of the Lions Club International which called on him at his office. Council Chairperson Abdul Karim led the delegation which included Arshad Salam and Abdul Rehman Alana. KMC Council Chairperson Naheed Fatima, Sabheen Gori, Saad bin Jaffer, Qaiser Imtiaz and Medical Services Senior Director Dr Beerbal were also present at the meeting.

The delegation said that their club has imported cornea from Sri Lanka incurring an expenditure of $350  each and corneal transplant cost comes around to Rs70,000. They offered the provision of cornea from Sri Lanka if KMC resumed this facility at Spencer Eye Hospital.

Akhtar said it was unfortunate that the facility was no more and he directed medical services senior director to work on it immediately.

The hospital was once the biggest centre for cornea transplants. More than 73,000 people have availed this facility from there. It was among the most famous eye hospitals in Asia, with patients coming in from all over the country as well as from Afghanistan, and Iran. The cornea transplant facility was however closed down 12 years ago. It is now being resumed on the mayor's directives.



He said that younger patients should be given preference in this facility. KMC will provide all possible cooperation and resources for this. In the first phase, four patients will get corneal transplantation each month and for this an agreement will be signed with Lions Club International.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 20^th, 2018.