By Kim Cheong-won
Staff Reporter


A nonprofit organization plans to set up the country’s first eye bank this year to promote the donation of eyes to the visually impaired.
The bank is expected to play a crucial role in bringing new sight to more than 3,600 patients across the nation who are waiting for corneal transplant.

``In association with a university hospital, we will set up an eye bank this year,’’ Lee Ji-sun, public relations manager at the Korean Organ Donor and Tissue Program (KODTP), told The Korea Times.

``As there is no medical organization which is exclusively dealing with the matter, effective corneal transplantation has been difficult,’’ she said.

The cornea is the clear tissue covering the front of the eye and the main focusing element of the eye.

The corneal transplant is a surgical procedure, which replaces a disc-shaped segment of an impaired cornea with a similarly shaped piece of a healthy donor cornea.

Experts said that over 90 percent of all corneal transplant operations successfully restore the recipient’s vision, if cornea is extracted from donors within six hours after they pass away.

According to the organization for organ sharing, the number of people pledging to donate their corneas has more than quintupled in 2005 from a year earlier, boosted mainly by increased public awareness of organ donation.

The organization said that the number of people who pledged to donate cornea through the agency stood at around 53,000 last year. The figure is more than five times the 8,020 a year before.

``Through many publicity activities, people have come to perceive the issue of organ donation as something related to them,’’ said Lee.

``In particular, an MBC TV program, called ``Nukkimpyo (Exclamation Mark), significantly contributed to improving public awareness about the urgency of the issue,’’ she said.

The weekly program is the focus of attention with the successful reviews of a section of the program titled ``Open Your Eyes,’’ and encouraging people to sign up for organ donations, which has long been taboo in South Korea due to the influence of Confucianism.

However, the number of actual donors is still a far cry from the number of those needing organ transplants, sending many patients abroad in search of organs.

A total of 3,661 patients have been waiting for the cornea transplantation as of November last year, but a mere 117 people donated their cornea last year.

Corneas donations are low in South Korea compared to other nations as are donations of other organs.

According to the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, the number of brain-dead organ donors per 1 million people stood at 1.4 in South Korea in 2003, far less than 32.5 in Spain, 22.1 in the United States, 17.8 in France and 10.9 in Britain.

A total of 14,796 people were waiting for organs last year, but only 1,903 people actually donated them, according to the Korean Network for Organ Sharing (KNOS).

``As cornea donations only take place when donors pass away, the commitment to donate does not really increase donations even many people promise,’’ said Lee.

``Also, many Koreans have been affected by a strong Confucianism concept that person’s body is inherited from his or her parents so that it should not be ruined in any form,’’ she added.

kcw@koreatimes.co.kr