‘Appu Amara’: His two eyes bring gift of sight to 4 persons

Team Udayavani, Nov 1, 2021, 3:42 PM IST

Bengaluru: The eyes donated by ‘Power Star’ Puneeth Rajkumar have helped restore sight in 4 people said Chairman of Narayana Nethralaya, Dr. K Bhujang Shetty on Monday.

Addressing a news conference, Dr. Shetty said, “The 2 corneas harvested from Puneeth have been successfully transplanted into four patients on Saturday. All four are responding well to treatment.”

Elaborating on how 2 corneas could give sight to 4 people, Dr. Bhujang Shetty said, “The corneas are split into two with the latest technology available. Hence, one cornea can be implanted into two persons.”

He said that such innovative state-of-the-art surgery can perhaps be called a first in the state where four patients were operated on the same day with the corneas of a single donor. He also congratulated the medical team for the exceptional results.

He said all four persons were operated on the same day and everything went well.

He appreciated the noble tradition of donating cornea that has been followed by the Dr. Rajkumar family.  He recalled that Dr. Rajkumar as well as his wife Pravathamma Rajkumar donated their eyes after their demise. Now their son Puneeth has also followed in his parents’ footsteps, he added

Dr. Shetty said Puneeth’s stem cells from the eye were also harvested and stored.