Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital restores eyesight of 56 patients in one month

Lahore: A leading eye care hospital working with a vision to eliminate blindness across the country has achieved distinction by conducting fifty six corneal transplant operations in one month.

Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital has upgraded facility to conduct at least fifty corneal transplants every month and so far 235 operations have been conducted successfully since July 2015, said a senior official of Al-Shifa Trust.

The trust has emerged as only facility in Pakistan to operate such a large number of patients which is a great achievement, said President of the hospital Lt. General (Retd) Hamid Javed.

While briefing a group of journalists, he said that the success would not have been possible without the sincere efforts of all the staff, especially that of Prof. Wajid Ali Khan, the Chief Consultant of Al-Shifa Trust who is recognised globally for his expertise in corneal grafting.

He said that the facility will be further improved with special attention on corneal transplant and refractive surgery. A cornea transplant is an operation used to remove all or part of a damaged cornea and replace it with healthy cornea tissue from the eye of a suitable donor, he informed.

Over seventy percent patients are treated free of cost by the trust therefore it is impossible to provide matchless service without the continuous support of community, he added.

Lt. Gen. Hamid Javed said that corneal transplant is a specialized treatment which require corneal donations and nothing gives us more pleasure that becoming a source through which blind get their sight back

Worldwide 45 million people are blind while 80 percent of blindness is preventable which deserve attentions of government, donors and general population.

Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospitals shine in these surgeries as 1500 patients with corneal disease have been operated and cured in one decade.

Our aspiration has always remained always bigger than resources but there is acute shortage of donor corneas which require masse awareness as this amounts to donating sight to others.

More people need to sign up to be a donor, more people need to discuss donation with those close to them and more families need to support donation as a change in attitude will means thousands of donations which will make thousands of blind as productive citizens, he concluded.