Mumbai: A 55-year-old man regained his vision after 37 years, along with his sister, after a corneal surgery was performed on them at state-run JJ Hospital. The siblings had both lost their vision to hereditary corneal blindness, which requires corneal donations. The dean of the hospital, Dr T.P. Lahane and head of the ophthalmic department Dr. Ragini Parekh, conducted the surgeries.
While talking to The Asian Age, the patient, Promod Jagkar, who lost his vision when he was eighteen years old, said, “I was in college when I started suffering from poor vision and I couldn’t see what the teacher was writing on the board. Doctors convinced me that I wouldn’t see again.” “After a few years my blurred vision gave way to complete blindness, and I got a PCO stall from the government, which was my bread and butter,” he said. After experiencing intense pain, Mr Jagkar visited the hospital for a corneal operation in December where he was examined. In January, Mr Jagkar and his sister were operated upon and their vision was subsequently restored.
Speaking about the case, Dr Lahane said, “He was suffering from corneal blindness, a visual impairment that occurs from the cornea becoming clouded and scarred infection that ultimately affects the transparency of the cornea, making a person blind. It encompasses a range of eye diseases, injuries or infections that damages corneal tissues, leading to permanent blindness.”
After the operation, Mr Jagkar was besides himself with joy, and mentioned that he could now see everything clearly, including his children’s faces. According to the National Programme for Control of Blindness, an estimated 1.2 lakh people live with corneal blindness in India.
