Dombivli couple with partial visual loss pledge their eyes

Celebration of national eye donation fortnight at Dombivli took an interesting turn when a visually impaired resident pledged his eyes on Tuesday. Every year, eye donation fortnight is celebrated from August 25 to September 8.

On Monday, Arun Saali, 62, a resident of Gupte road, visited the eye check up and donation camp organised by MP Dr Shrikant Shinde at Sarvesh hall in Dombivli. "My wife who wears spectacles had vision problem and wanted to get her eyes checked. So, I took her to the camp," said Saali who leads a retired life after working as a telephone operator for 34 years.

After his wife Smita's check up, the couple started enquiring about eye donation and she expressed interesting in donating her eyes posthumously. Even Saali got excited about this idea and checked with the doctors if he could also donate his eyes.

"The doctors said my cornea is intact and I can donate my eyes," said an excited Saali, adding, "We filled the forms, pledging to donate our eyes."

Unfortunately though Saali can help give vision to someone, he himself cannot benefit from eye donation as his retina is damaged. "There are so many visually impaired people who can benefit from eye donations, but there is shortage of eyes. Let my eyes go to someone in need and help him see the world," he said.

The eye donation and check up camp was held on September 7 and 8. "In India, there are 1.5 crore people who are visually challenged and of them 30 lakh can benefit from eye donation," said Shinde. "Annually, we need 2.5 lakh eyes but only 25,000 are available. So we arranged this camp to create awareness among the public," he added.