Hospital notes increase in cornea donations for transplant

A hospital in Thessaloniki has said that the supply of corneas for transplant has jumped following the much-publicized decision of the family of a 21-year-old woman to donate her organs after she died five days after being struck by a car in a hit and run in the city.

Dr Nikolaos Ziakas, who heads the Cornea Transplantation Center in Papageorgiou Hospital, said that while 25 cornea transplants were performed from the beginning of the year to November, the supply of corneas increased by 20% in the week after the young woman’s death on November 27.

On Monday, a 10-year-old girl, who lost her sight when she was two and half years old, received one of the corneas of Emma, the name of the woman who was killed.

Thanks to new donations of corneas, Ziakas was also able to perform a transplant on a 60-year-old patient who was practically blind.

Another cornea transplant at the hospital is scheduled for December 10 and two two on December 12.