PATNA, May 31 -- A 55-year-old man from Patna's Dulhinbazar and a 30-year-old woman from Sampatchak, both shrouded in darkness for years, regained eyesight on Tuesday through corneal transplant surgery, the first at the state's All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) since it was established in 2012, said doctors on Thursday. "Both the patients are doing fine and recuperating fast," said Dr Amit Raj, professor and head of the department of ophthalmology at AIIMS-Patna. The cornea of the 55-year-old man had turned white and cloudy, a condition called corneal blindness, due to an injury he suffered at the age of 14 years. A team of eye specialists at AIIMS-Patna first performed cataract surgery and then transplanted a new cornea through corneal transplant surgery. "The entire procedure was successful, and the patient's vision was restored. Now he is able to see like before and is leading a normal life," said Dr Raj. "The 30-year-old woman had an infection in her left eye some time ago. The infection spread so fast that the cornea of one of her eyes started melting and the vision of the eye gradually vanished. A new cornea was transplanted through therapeutic keratoplasty. After successful surgery, the shape of the patient's eye was restored, and the infection prevented spreading," said Dr Raj. Doctors successfully performed keratoplasty surgery on both patients. They, however, attributed the medical success to the eye donation of a person on May 23, giving eyesight to two patients. Both the patients and their families expressed their heartfelt gratitude to the doctors at AIIMS-Patna for the successful surgery. Executive director Prof (Dr) Saurabh Varshney and medical superintendent Prof (Dr) Anup Kumar stressed the need for eye donation. They said that continuous efforts were necessary to promote eye donation. "We must reach out to every corner of society and make people understand that one decision can bring light to life," said a statement quoting Dr Varshney....