One vision: Sri Lanka’s cornea donations restoring sight in China

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Transporting fresh corneas can be difficult given their short shelf life, and the distance between China and Sri Lanka nearly made this donation impossible.

Five corneas safely arrived in Jinan, east China’s Shandong Province this Thursday after a five-day trip. This is the first time that patients in Shandong have received corneas donated from overseas.

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Liu Jun, who underwent a corneal transplant operation on Thursday immediately after their arrival, was the first to benefit from a new cooperation scheme between China and Sri Lanka.

China is the second largest recipient of cornea donations from Sri Lanka – a country where an amazing one in five people have pledged to donate their corneas.

According to the Eye Donation Society – a Sri Lankan non-profit organization founded in 1961 – 1,000 out of 2,551 cornea donations from the society were sent to China in 2014.

Local newspaper Qilu Evening News reported that Shandong Province has the largest number of patients requiring corneal transplants in China, due to its large population and agriculture industry.

“Farmers get hurt when they harvest corn and grain. Small pieces can accidentally injure the cornea,” said Li Suxia, chief director of Shandong Ophthalmology Hospital.

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China only carries out 5,000 corneal transplant operations each year, while three million patients are on a waiting list for corneas.

Due to a lack of cornea storage facilities, the local supply of corneas is far from meeting demand in Shandong Province.

However, corneal transplant surgeries are mostly effective, with more than 90 percent of operations successful, restoring sight for over 70 percent of patients.

Sri Lanka has long been recognized as the country that supplies eyes to the world. Since the 1960s, Sri Lanka has become a major donor of corneas to more than 58 countries.

Buddhism plays an important role in encouraging and teaching people that cornea donation is a way of giving. By pledging to donate their corneas, people believe that they will be rewarded with a good rebirth in the next life.

From generation to generation, Sri Lankans have come to see cornea donation as a tradition, with two former prime ministers and the country’s former president Junius Jayewardene all pledging to donate their corneas.

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In 2013, the Sri Lanka International Eye Bank signed an agreement with hospitals in Sichuan Province, southwest China. It pledged to donate at least 500 corneas to patients in Sichuan each year.

Shandong Ophthalmology Research Center has also signed agreements with the International Eye Bank of Sri Lanka and another eye bank in Seattle in the last two years, as it looks to ensure that it has a reliable cornea supply from overseas, ready to restore the sight of people in the province.

(Story written by Liu Chen)