Kendrapara: They were engulfed in grief over their parents’ sudden death in an accident. However, that did not deter them from donating their eyes.
Respecting their last wishes, the bereaved sons gave the gift of life to the visually-impaired.
For 46-year-old Upendra Patri, an employee of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), it was the darkest hour of his life after his parents were killed in a road accident near Kaudikola junction on National Highway-5A September 22 while they were going to a relative’s house on their two-wheeler.
Though traumatised by the loss of his parents, Upendra resolved to fulfill their last wish as the motionless bodies of father and mother were lying in the mortuary at SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack.
The elderly man from Sanamangala locality of Kendrapara town Bhagaban Patri (66) and his spouse Debapriya (60) were killed in a road accident Thursday afternoon when they were crushed to death by a speeding truck.
“I was in a state of deep shock. My parents’ death had left me thoroughly broken. However in the depressing moments, I remembered my parents’ last wish for eye donation after death. It spurred me to consult the doctors. They appreciated my gesture and made arrangements for eye donation,” recalled Upendra with moist eyes.
“My two younger brothers swiftly consented to it. I had to sign a form pledging eye donation as part of legal formalities. We had to wait for an extra half-an-hour to take the bodies back home for last rites,” he said.
My parents’ death is irreversible. However, eye donation has provided a degree of consolation and peace to my family. I feel my parents would remain alive as they are going to eradicate darkness of at least two visually-impaired persons, he observed.
It is heartening to note that children kept their parents’ last wish by donating their eyes. The noble work would give a new life to some who are dispossessed of vision, said ophthalmologist Debendra Sutar.
It is a period of mourning and grief for relatives following the death of kin. Many are found disinclined towards removal of cornea in these hours of distress. It’s also a sentimental issue. However in recent years, people are realising the virtue of eye donation, an eye-donation campaigner, Nrusingh Nath. PNN
