For 16 years Meku Bibi, 70, of Gazipur in Agradwip, Purba Bardhaman, could see nothing with her right eye and only blurrily with her left. After a corneal transplant by the DSEK technique at Bardhaman Medical College Hospital she can see again. Sangbad Pratidin reports it was the first such operation at the hospital.

Her daughter Golapi Bibi said her mother lost her sight after a cataract operation in Berhampore, Murshidabad, 16 years ago. She went from hospital to hospital; a visit to Indore about five years ago brought brief relief, but language problems and cost stopped her going back.

Treatment began under a team led by assistant professor Dattatreya Bandyopadhyay, part of the eye department headed by Somnath Mukhopadhyay, and the operation was performed on 25 September. Dr Bandyopadhyay said fluid had built up in the eye after the cataract surgery and destroyed her sight; a cornea donated through an organisation in Durgapur was transplanted, and she is now well and able to see.

According to the report, a DSEK operation had been carried out earlier in West Bengal at the Regional Institute of Ophthalmology in Kolkata, but by visiting surgeons. This makes it the first successful DSEK transplant in the state performed by a government hospital's own doctors.

Hospital superintendent Shantanu Sen said the operation was free of charge. Meku Bibi said she could see everything when her eye was opened four days after surgery. Donated corneas and public-hospital skill together can put costly eye surgery within ordinary people's reach.

Photo: John Ricks / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Source: Sangbad Pratidin