Blind cancel surgery over rising costs

Blind cancel surgery over rising costs

JAKARTA (JP): The sharply rising cost of eye transplants has
prompted many blind people who were intending to undergo surgery
to cancel the operations, Iding Kusnadi, the secretary of the
Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian Eye Bank, said yesterday.

Iding said that as a result of the economic crisis the
transplant cost almost doubled from Rp 3 million (US$230) to Rp 5
million.

The substantial jump was caused mainly by the fact that most
of the equipment and medicines used in the transplants were
imported, he said at a ceremony for the handover of tokens of
appreciation to 23 eye donors' heirs at the City Hall.

The annual ceremony was held in conjunction with the
commemoration of the 53rd anniversary of Indonesia's Independence
Day on Aug. 17, Iding said.

"Many patients due to undergo eye transplants were forced to
cancel their plans as soon as they learned the cost has
substantially jumped," he said without giving details on the
number of blind people canceling their transplants.

Iding just said the number of people on the waiting list for
eye transplants was 184.

According to data from the bank, the number of eye donors in
Jakarta during the last 30 years is 12,569, of which half had
already been donated.

Iding said the donors consisted of local people and some in
the United States.

"We also have donors from Australia and the Netherlands, but
their number is small. We used to import eyes from Sri Lanka but
we can no longer afford to as they had to be purchased in U.S.
dollars," he said

Iding said that the existing number of eye donors was very
small compared to the city population of about 9.7 million.

He said that the low number was caused mainly by people's
belief that a dead person should be buried intact and donating
part of his/her body would cause an imperfection.

"We find it difficult to reconcile the belief. But I think
that when people die what should be complete is their deeds not
bodies," he said.

He also said that 1,912 people had undergone eye transplants
with the help of the eye bank over the last 30 years. (ind)