You can only take a person’s cornea for transplant when they are dead - Ophthalmologist

The President of the Ophthalmology Society of Ghana, Dr. Dziffa Ofori-Adjei, has explained how people can get cornea tissues for transplants in the country.

She said that while in other transplantations, like that for kidney, a living person’s organ is required, when it comes to corneas, it can only be taken from a dead person.

Dr. Ofori-Adjei explained this to Daniel Oduro, host of The Lowdown on GhanaWeb TV, while advocating for a legislation to be passed in Ghana for these transplantations to be done.

“Basically, cornea transplant is taking cornea tissues from someone else and then transplanting it in another person. But you can only take the person’s cornea when the person is dead and is not using their eyes.

“So, unlike kidney transplants that most of the time you may get a live donor, in cornea transplant, it’s a dead donor that would give you the cornea. So, before the person dies, they would usually would sign and say they want to give a part of their organs to be donated, and that is where cornea transplants come in,” she explained.

Dr. Dziffa Ofori-Adjei and Dr. Gladys Fordjour, Consultant Ophthalmologist Surgeon and cornea specialist at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, further explained other aspects of the subject matter, explaining why it is important that the country has a legislation on organ transplants.

Cornea blindness is a significant public health issue in Ghana, affecting a substantial number of individuals each year.

Cornea transplantation can restore sight and improve the quality of life for these individuals.

However, the lack of a comprehensive legislative framework for cornea donations in Ghana has hindered the potential benefits of this life-changing procedure.

Watch the full video below:

Ghana’s leading digital news platform, GhanaWeb, in conjunction with the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, is embarking on an aggressive campaign which is geared towards ensuring that parliament passes comprehensive legislation to guide organ harvesting, organ donation, and organ transplantation in the country.

AE/DAG