Edhi’s corneas help blind man, woman to see the world again

KARACHI: As the Edhi’s body was being laid to rest amid tears and moving scenes on Saturday afternoon, two top eye surgeons of the country were busy at the Ophthalmology Ward of Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) in transplanting each cornea of Maulana Edhi to two different blind patients.

Maulana Edhi had asked for donating all his organs for needy and deserving patients but due to his ailments, only corneas of Maulana Edhi were found fit to be transplanted to blind patients and soon after his death, a team of eye surgeons had removed both the corneas of Maulana Edhi for transplanting them to deserving patients.

On Saturday afternoon, renowned eye surgeons Dr Idrees Edhi and Dr Akhtar Jamal Khan transplanted one cornea each of Maulana Edhi to two different patients at SIUT, who were completely blind and were awaiting cornea donations to see the light of the world again.

Eye surgeons said due to sensitivity of the issue and privacy of the patients, identities of both the patients who received Maulana Edhi’s corneas could not be disclosed but added that one of them was a female, while the other one was a male.

Talking to The News after the surgery, eye surgeon Dr Idrees Edhi said both the corneas of Maulana Abdus Sattar Edhi were in good condition and would help two patients to see the world again and encourage thousands other to go for cadaver organ donations like Maulana Edhi.  He said corneas donated by one person are never transplanted to a single blind person as donations of corneas help to regain eyesight of two blind persons.