Four corneal blind patients received eyesight, thanks to Kannada actor late Puneeth Rajkumar. The eyes of the actor were donated soon after his demise on Friday.
Chairman and managing director of Narayana Nethralaya, Dr Bhujang Shetty, said the eyes of Puneeth were collected on Friday after his death and the transplants took place the very next day. "Generally, we transplant donated eyes to two persons but in Puneeth’s case, we were able to give sight to four youths," he said.
"...we used each eye to treat two patients by separating the superior and deeper layers of the cornea. The superior layer was transplanted to two patients who had a superficial corneal disease and only the deeper layer was transplanted to patients with endothelial or deep corneal layer disease. Hence, we conducted four different transplants from two corneas to restore the vision of four patients," Shetty told reporters, adding that such a procedure is carried out first time in the state.
He also thanked the family members of the actor for the donation. "We are very fortunate and grateful for ‘Power Star’ Puneeth Rajkumar’s eye donation."
The actor's father, matinee icon Dr. Rajkumar, too had donated his eyes after death. Soon after Puneeth was pronounced dead, his brother Raghavendra contacted Narayana Nethralaya, for making the donation.
The actor and celebrity television host, fondly knows as 'Appu' and 'Yuvarathnaa' after his eponymous films, died at 46 at a hospital in Bengaluru on Friday after suffering a massive heart attack.
