SRI LANKAN EYES DONATED TO PNG

The Sri Lankan Association is helping the eye clinic at the Port Moresby General Hospital by restoring eyesight to patients with corneal problems.

This is a procedure where corneal tissues are removed from a donor, usually donated upon death, and then grafted onto a patient who is suffering from blindness.

The procedure is a transplant that the doctors at the eye clinic have been specially trained to carry out.

Present to receive the cargo at Jacksons Airport yesterday, was the President of the Sri Lankan PNG Friendship Foundation, Cyril Mudalige.

It’s not any ordinary cargo, as it could restore the eye sight of patients suffering from blindness.

Contained inside the small box are three corneas from Sri Lanka.

In July this year, the eye clinic carried out cornea transplant on three patients with the help of the foundation.

This is the second donation for three more patients.

The aim of the foundation is to provide eye sight to at least 12 patients every year.

“Every three months we are getting three eyes from Sri Lanka for this eye clinic,” said Mudalige.

Corneal Transplantation is a surgical procedure where a damaged or diseased cornea of the eye is replaced by a donated corneal graft.

The transplant is costly and unaffordable for many Papua New Guineans, but through generous donations like this, many patients have had their eyesight restored.

Doctors at the Port Moresby Eye Clinic are specially trained to carry out this surgical procedure, and have been doing so, with a high success rate.

As early as 1989, Cornea Transplants were done in PNG through the efforts of a then Sri Lankan Doctor, Dr. Perea, who organized cornea to be brought to PNG. The Sri Lankan Foundation has revived this program.