BENGALURU: The Narayana Nethralaya, which runs the Dr Rajkumar Eye Bank, has recorded 85,000 people who have registered for eye donation in a year since Puneeth Rajkumar’s eye donation on October 29.
The late actor Puneeth Rajkumar’s eyes were donated to four people through advanced technology. His eye donation prompted more and more people to pledge their eyes.
“After Puneeth Rajkumar’s eyes were donated, 85,000 people have pledged their eyes for donation. I have seen people waiting to pledge their eyes. Some of them called me from faraway places for details about the donations. In the last 28 years, only 68,000 people had pledged their eyes. In a year, more than 1,000 people have already donated their eyes. On an average, around 50 per cent of the eyes are collected from our bank,” said Dr Bhujang Shetty, Ophthalmologist, Narayana Nethralaya.
“We started to use technology by giving a contact number so that people who wanted to donate their eyes could give a missed call to pledge their donation. When you give a missed call to the number, the form will download within a minute. All you have to do next is fill in the form with the necessary details and upload it. You will get a certificate saying that your pledge is registered with us,” he added.