On May 17, 2024, MOHAN Foundation (MF) held an awareness session on eye donation for the doctors and medical staffs at District Government Combined Hospital, Noida. The session was organized in collaboration with the ICARE Eye Hospital and CMO, Noida. The session was coordinated by Commodore VM Swamy, Project Director (Eye Donation), ICARE Eye Hospital, Noida.

An MOU was signed between the District Government Combined Hospital and ICARE Eye Hospital to launch the program. This session was initiated to immediately begin the corneal retrieval program in their hospitals.

Ms. Pallavi Kumar, Executive Director of MOHAN Foundation, led the session, supported by Ms. Simran Anand and Ms. Sanya Santosh, Program Officers, MF NCR. Dr Shubhra Mittal, Additional CMO, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Noida facilitated the introduction, and Ms. Kumar led the session on eye donation.

Ms. Kumar began the session by sharing her life experience where she consented to donate her father Mr. Rajendra Kumar’s corneas after his demise in 2018, his corneas were retrieved by ICARE Eye hospital.

She then covered the following topics in detail through a PowerPoint presentation: -

• Status of eye donation in India

• What are corneas

• Common reasons for corneal blindness

• Who can and cannot be a donor

• Eye donation process

• What all are the precautions to be taken if death occurs at home

• Hospital corneal retrieval program

• Grief counsellor/ Eye donation counsellor

• The Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994

Mr. Jagdish, Coordinator, ICARE Eye hospital also shared how ICU staffs can counsel the patient’s family for corneal donation after their loved one’s demise.

Dr. Uma Sridhar, Senior Consultant for Cornea and Cataract Service at ICARE Eye Hospital, shared her experience of consenting to donate her mother-in-law’s corneas after her demise, contrasting it with her inability to donate her mother's corneas due to her breast cancer, a contraindication for donations. She emphasized the importance of family consent at the time of a loved one's death.

The session proved highly interactive, with participants actively participating in discussions and posing numerous queries, including:

• How long can corneas be preserved in solutions after retrieval?

• If the family consents to donation, is the treating doctor’s consent also required?

Close to 40 participants attended the session.