PATNA, May 24 -- The All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Patna successfully received its first cornea donation, marking the commencement of operations of its newly established eye bank on Friday, according to a press release issued by the institute. The cornea donation follows approval by the Bihar government under the Transplant of Human Organs and Tissues Act earlier this month. The state-of-the-art eye bank has been established in collaboration with the LV Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, said Dr Amit Raj, professor and head of ophthalmology department at AIIMS-Patna. The AIIMS initiated work on establishing eye bank infrastructure in September 2004. The institute applied for approval from the State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO) in December last year, after which the latter inspected the infrastructure at AIIMS in February. Executive director, AIIMS Patna Prof. (Dr.) Saurabh Varshney congratulated the whole eye bank team for commencing the landmark service. He said the commencement of eye bank service will be a boon for corneal blind people of this region. There are around 2.5-3 million corneal blind persons in India, and it is the second most common cause of preventable blindness after cataract, said Dr Raj. Dr Raj hoped that more people would come forward for cornea donation. He said the AIIMS-Patna had dedicated contact numbers 8544423411 and 0612-2821202 for eye donation and pledge related queries. Medical superintendent Dr Anup Kumar presented a certificate of appreciation to the family of eye donor. Dr Ramesh Kumar, head, department of gastroenterology and other faculty members from the department of ophthalmology, including Dr Bhawesh Chandra Saha, Dr Dev Kant and Dr Amit Kumar were present along with the whole team of eye bank AIIMS Patna, as the certificate was presented to the eye donor's family. The eye bank at AIIMS Patna, was the eighth in the state. The eye bank, said experts, will boost the corneal blindness programme in which Bihar ranks among the laggard states, especially as compared to those in south India. States like Tamil Nadu and Telangana, for instance, contribute to 8,000 to 10,000 eye donations annually as compared to 75 - 125 in Bihar....