THIS HELPLINE IS AN EYEWASH

The helpline number of Ahmedabad Civil Hospital's eye bank, biggest in the state,is lying non-functional for the past few days. This makes it difficult for a deceased person's family members to contact the bank and make donations in time

A dead helpline number threatens to throw a spanner in the works for Gujarat that recorded the second highest number of eye donations in 2014-15.On Sunday, an 80-year-old man passed away in his Paldi home on Sunday following brain haemorrhage.Nagindas Mulchand had pledged his eyes before his death as his last wish was to help a blind person see the world. His grandson Kaushik dialled Civil Hospital eye bank's number ­ 079-22681010 ­ to find out the procedure to donate his grandad's eyes, but nobody picked up the phone.Finally, after much running around, he got in touch with an NGO that helped him donate his grandfather's eyes to Nagri Eye Hospital.

“After my grandfather's death, I repeatedly tried contacting the doctors on Civil Hospital eye bank's 247 helpline number. But nobody received my calls,“ said Kaushik. Civil Hospital's eye bank runs a 247 helpline number to help donors in donating eye round the clock but it is lying non-functional due to technical problem for the past 10 days. According to doctors, the eyes have to be retrieved within six hours of a person's death. The eyes can be preserved in an eyebank for two weeks or implanted within 24 hours.

“The helpline number, which is directly connected to the emergency ward, is not functioning due to a technical problem. We are repairing it,“ Dr Shashank Patel, the head of the eye bank, told Mirror on Monday. However, when Mirror dialed the number twice on Tuesday, it was still not in operation. The phone went on ringing but no one received the calls.

On October 22, a relative of another deceased tried to contact the eyebank on the same number, but to no avail. “The deceased person's eyes could not be donated as the family could not contact the doctor. They had no clue about the procedure for eye harvesting,“ said Kaushal Shah, member of Satayu, an NGO that works for organ donation.

“The helpline is non-functional for more than a week now. This shows how irresponsible the eye bank officials are. Such careless attitude only discourages the donors,“ said Kaushal, who had even called up Retina Foundation and Eye Research Centre to help Kaushik, but again, nobody received the calls here. It was CH Nagri Hospital that finally harvested the eyes of Kaushik's grandfather. “I am happy that his eyes have been put to good use. I would not have been able to forgive myself otherwise,“ Kaushik said.

A senior doctor of Civil's ophthalmology department told Mirror, “Our eye bank is state's biggest and oldest. Every day we get one or two donors.“ Gujarat is the second state after Tamil Nadu with highest number of eye donations. According to National Programme for Control of Blindness (NPCB), in 2014 Tamil Nadu recorded 11,387 eye donations whereas Gujarat recorded 9,830.

Gujarat is the fifth state in India with the highest number of blind people. As per 2011 census, 21 people are blind in Gujarat per 1,000 inhabitants.Considering, the six crore pollution of Gujarat, the state has around 12 lakh blind people.