But every day, Padam Raj Bharati, a volunteer counselor working at the Pashupatinath cremation area, humbly requests the bereaved to allow such extraction so that those who need the corneas will have the gift of vision. [break]
Apart from Bharati three others working at the Eye Bank at Tilganga Eye Hospital go to Aryaghat on a regular basis in hopes of securing cornea donations.
"Sometimes, we face extremely unpleasant situations. Relatives of the deceased scold us," Bharati said, adding, "But the chiding does not deter us."
Some relatives respond to the counselors with expressions like “What nonsense are you talking? Don´t you see what we are going through?" said Shankar Narayan Twyana, another counselor working for the Eye Bank. According to Twyana, most bereaved family members are reluctant to allow cornea extraction. Some even become hostile. But some others eventually become persuaded.
Sometimes the counselors hesitate to approach the bereaved, especially when the deceased is a young person killed in an accident, or a teenager who committed suicide.
In such cases, a request for cornea extraction may infuriate the family. Unfortunately, it is precisely young and healthy corneas that counselors are looking for and they cannot desist from making a request.
"It looks insensitive to seek a cornea donation at the cremation site. But if we do not ask, valuable cornea that can allow people to see for the first time will soon turn to ash," Twyana said.
"Our job is to give vision to the blind, so we make an attempt at persuasion," he added.
They counsel the relatives. They explain that the whole eyeball is not extracted, but only the thin cornea. They tell the bereaved that if they allow the extraction they can take consolation in that at least a part of their deceased relative will remain alive.
Twyana has many tales to tell. A few months ago, he had to deal with the family of a teenage girl who had committed suicide.
When he approached one of the relatives, that individual became furious and told Twyana to get lost. But a few minutes later the counselor was asked to return, as the family was ready to make the donation.
"The dead girl was so beautiful, I felt sad extracting the cornea," he said, adding "Sometimes circumstances make us emotional. We are also human."
The counselors approach bereaved relatives only if they appear relatively calm, and most want to know if the extracted corneas are to be sold to the blind.
Traditional beliefs also make the bereaved reluctant to allow cornea extraction. Some allow extraction of just one cornea as they believe the deceased may not be able to see in the next life if both corneas are removed.
People of the Islamic and Christian faiths also hesitate to donate the eyes of their dead.
More than 400 people are waiting for cornea transplants at Tilganga, according to an official at the Eye Bank. Cornea is in short supply as even people who commit themselves while still alive to make the donation can end up not donating after all, as the Eye Bank might not know when the donors die.
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