Source: IndianExpress.com
On terror's anniversary, an unusual tale: when eye for
an eye made two people see
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Anuraag Singh Posted online: Friday, March 07, 2008 at
0047 hrs
SankatMochan blast Varanasi Railway clerk donates eyes
of son killed in
blast-to a child and a woman
VARANASI, AZAMGARH, MARCH 6: Tomorrow, it will be two
years since two powerful
blasts tore through the Sankatmochan temple and the
railway station in Varanasi,
bringing death to 18 homes. But one single act by one
of the families hit by the
terror strikes has given new life to two homes, one in
Nizamabad in eastern UP
and another in Jamalpur in Bihar.
Railway inquiry-cum-reservation clerk Sushil
Upadhyaya, whos still to come to
terms with the death of his 20-year-old son Ritesh in
the Sankatmochan blast,
donated his sons eyes. That one act helped a
two-year-old girl and an elderly
woman both had vision in only one eye recover full
vision.
Ritesh, an amateur photographer, had gone to the
temple on March 7, 2006 with
professional lensman Harish Bijlani and brother Rajesh
to film a marriage being
held there. When the blast took place, Bijlani died
instantly and Ritesh
sustained multiple injuries in the head, stomach and
legs. He died of internal
bleeding at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU)
hospital 16 days later.
It was an irreparable loss, a great shock. The family
had lost its most loving
son. But we all decided we will make Ritesh live,
Upadhyaya told The Indian
Express. Two days before he died, we were told by
doctors that the chances of
my sons survival were very remote. This made me
think. We decided, and it was a
bold decision, to donate his eyes. It would help those
who cant see.
After Ritesh died, his eyes went to the two-year-old
daughter of a national
award-winning potter from Nizamabad (Azamgarh) and an
elderly woman from
Jamalpur, Upadhyaya said.
Nandini, the potters daughter, had lost vision in the
left eye in an accident
when she was only a year old. We still remember March
26, 2006. It was the day
which ended our agony. We got a call from the BHU
hospital that day. We were
told to come to the Varanasi hospital the next day,
recalled Nandinis father
Ram Jatan Prajapati.
The family reached Varanasi the same night. The next
day, the cornea implant was
performed by ophthalmologists OPS Maurya and Abhishek
Chandra. We were later
told that Nandini was able to see with both eyes only
because of a youth who
died in the temple blast, Nandinis mother Pushpa
said.
As far as we know, the other cornea was implanted in
the eye of an elderly
woman from Jamalpur. It was to go to a boy from
Varanasi initially. But he he
fell ill just before the surgery and the doctors
decided against the implant,
Ram Jatan said.
The blast plunged one family into darkness but
returned light to two families.
We will be forever indebted to the family of the young
man who died in the
blast, Pushpa said.
Ophthalmologist Abhishek Chandra said Nandinis left
eye in which the cornea
was implanted has a squint which now needs correction.
We will perform
corrective surgery on April 14.
Riteshs family believes he is still alive, seeing the
world through Nandini and
the woman in Bihar. But the family is still waiting
for the certificate
confirming the eye donation. Told about this, Dr
Chandra said if such an error
has taken place, it will be rectified. Riteshs family
will be handed the
certificate.
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