Do you respond to emergency calls for blood donation or participate in blood donation week as a donor?
You can also put a smile on the face of a fellow Kenyan at risk of becoming blind by donating your cornea after passing on.
According to Gerald Muriithi, an officer with Lions Eye Hospital, one only needs to contact the hospital’s eye bank and fill a pledge form after which they will extract the cornea within 8 hours after they are notified one has passed on.
"After a donor has filled a pledge form, we issue them with a donor card. The donor is also required to inform family members or the next-of-kin of their decision. If they consent to donor's decision they are required to contact the hospital after the donor has died before 8 hours elapse," explained Muriithi at Kalimoni Mission Hospital, Juja, during an eye clinic.
Once the cornea has been harvested they are preserved under regulated temperatures in Kanubhai Babla Eye bank, at the Lions Eye Hospital in Loresho, Nairobi. The tissues undergo various quality and suitability tests that include cell count and blood sample tests for HIV, Hepatitis B and C, and Syphilis before they are transplanted.
He noted that currently the hospital has more than 1000 children between the age of 5 and 15 years waiting for a corneal transplant but the hospital has a shortage of the vital organs. He said that most of corneas are donated by Indians in Kenya and which are not enough.
Muriithi said they are forced to import corneas from Germany, Sri Lanka, the United States, Europe and India. Muriithi explained that after removal of the cornea there is no change to the face of the donor.
"What most people don't know is that we do not remove the entire eye but we take only the top layer of the eye, the transparent convex membrane which covers the pupil and iris," he noted.
In Kenya, 300,000 people are blind from conditions or circumstances that can be avoided. The common causes of corneal blindness are heredity, scarring of the cornea after trauma, infections, damage during eye surgery, ageing processes or corneal diseases.
Muriithi urged Kenyans to donate corneas as the demand of Kenyans in need of corneal transplants heavily outweighs the supply.
"We are now calling for awareness on the need for one to donate one’s eye tissues for the sake of those who need them and put a smile on their faces," he added.