HEALTH

Apollo Hospital CMO ‘refuses to accept’ cornea
Tripti Nath
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 15
Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, which counts itself as one of the six best corporate hospitals in the world, seems to care little about sensitivity in dealing with patients. In a recent case, the Chief Medical Officer of the hospital (now in the UK), Mr Sunil Kumar, allegedly refused to accept the cornea of a 71-year-old patient despite repeated pleas by his relatives.

The patient, Shib Das Mitra, had been discharged from Apollo Hospital after undergoing double valve replacement and corneal artery bypass grafting surgery.

He is said to have offended the relative by rejecting the offer outright and asking what use would the cornea of a septuagenarian be to anybody.

Sanjoy Mitra told TNS that when he took his father Shib Das Mitra’s body to Apollo, the CMO, Dr Sunil Kumar, tried to contest the time of the death instead of arranging for organ donation. ``It was his duty to contact the eye bank.

Doctors ought to be more sensitive towards the entire issue of doctor-patient relationship,’’ says Sanjoy Mitra, who feels that he will live with the regret of not being able to fulfil his father’s wish.

This despite the fact that there is tremendous demand for cornea in the country and celebrities endorsing eye donation. India has about 2.5 million cases of corneal blindness. Of these, 90,000 persons are said to be bilaterally blind due to corneal disease. Every year, 18,000 to 20,000 new cases are added and 6,000 to 7,000 corneal grafts are done in India every year.

Such a response is all the more unexpected from Apollo whose transplant specialists are active members of the Human Organ Procurement Education Trust (HOPE), a voluntary organisation run by senior lawyer Rani Jethmalani.

The national Capital has only six eye banks at the RP Centre at AIIMS (the national eye bank), the Guru Nanak Eye Centre, the Venu Eye Institute, Ganga Ram Hospital, Safdarjang Hospital and Indraprastha Apollo Hospital. And, the national eye bank has a waiting period of three to six years.

Consultant ophthalmologist at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, Dr Mahipal Sachdev, says that guidelines favour use of a cornea for optical purposes belonging to a patient below 65 years. In the USA, the cornea of a patient above 55 years is not preferred for grafting for optical purposes.

“The younger the patient, the better the endothelium cell count. Good quality tissue includes tissue below 65 years of age. The endothelium cell count becomes poor because of ageing. This is a relative contraindication for use of cornea. The absolute contraindication for use include cornea of a person who died of HIV, hepatitis, any central nervous system disease infection, secondary metastasis or rabies.’’

Dr Sachdev further explained that when a cornea comes to the eye bank, the senior resident in charge of the bank does a slit lamp evaluation of the tissue. ``Quite often, the tissues of elderly people cannot be used. If you use a cornea of poor quality, it does not help anybody. What we have learnt over time is not to compromise on the quality of tissue unless it is for therapeutic purpose - as a treatment for corneal perforation.’’

Dr Sachdev says that degradation of the cornea is very fast in summers. This necessitates the removal of the tissue within four hours. In winters, it may be up to eight to 10 hours.

Asked what a doctor on emergency duty should do when confronted with such a request, Dr Sachdev said ``when I was in RP Centre, we did not refuse donation. The tissue was taken out, assessed critically on the slit lamp and if not found useful for optical purposes it was not used. It is a double trauma if the family discovers that the cornea has gone unused. In India, we compromise on the quality of the cornea and use tissues upto B+ only in desperate situations.’’

The Director, Medical Services, Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, Major-General B. M. Aiyana, says, ``I’ve made inquiries about the case. The doctor concerned has left Apollo and gone to the UK for higher studies. The other CMO has absolutely no recollection of such an offer being made.

If there is an offer for cornea, the CMO may not necessarily be equipped. He should refer the person to the Registrar, Ophthalmology.’’

SPORTS

DDCA shortlists 27 players for Ranji 
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, October 15
The Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) has shortlisted 27 players, with Vijay Dahiya as captain, for selecting the Ranji Trophy cricket

team. The senior selection committee, under the chairmanship of Chetan Chauhan, met on Monday to shortlist the players from among 40 odd probables who had attended the selection trials.

National selector Kirti Azad, Anil Jain, Sunil Khanna, Surender Khanna and Venkat Sundaram were the others who attended the selection committee meeting.

Interestingly, there is no mention of coach Bishan Singh Bedi, as the players have been asked to report to manager Rajeev Vinayak and Anil Jain at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground on Wednesday at 2 p.m.

Following are the 27 players shortlisted for the Ranji Trophy: Vijay Dahiya (captain), Mithun Manhas (vice-captain), Akash Chopra, Gautam Gambhir, Pardeep

Chawla, Sarandeep Singh, Rahul Sanghvi, Ashish Nehra, Virender Sehwag, Amit Bhandari, Arun Singh, Varun Kumar,

Harender Chaudhary, Robin Singh Jr. Sanjay Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Kuldeep Rawat, Vivek Khurana, Radhey Shyam Gupta, Vishal Sharma, Siddharth Verma, Rajan Gupta, Saket Bhatia, Rajat Bhatia, Parambir Nagar, N S Negi and Sonu Vaid.

Allahabad crush Karnataka in cricket
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, October 15
An unbeaten 54 by Uttar Pradesh Ranji Trophy player Nasir Ali and 54 by Virender Upadhyay helped Allahabad High Court beat Karnataka High Court by eight wickets in a league match of the 14th All-India Advocates' Cricket Tournament at the Khalsa College ground.

Scores: Karnataka High Court: 143 all out in 39.6 overs (Shiv Dutt Sharma 22, Vivek Reddy 21, Aditya Shukla 3 for 25). Allahabad High Court: 144 for 2 in 21.5 overs (Nasir Ali 54 n.o, Virender Upadhyay 54).

Lucknow High Court beat Punjab and Haryana High Court by 42 runs at the Central Secretariat ground.

Scores: Lucknow High Court: 134 all out in 28.6 overs (Sailender Mishra 43, Sukhdeep Singh 4 for 33). Punjab and

Haryana High Court: 92 all out in 28.4 overs (Sandeep MedGil 28, Ummed Warish 3 for 11, Sumit Dogra 2 for 19).

Mumbai Advocates' Cricket Association beat Indore High Court Bar Association by eight wickets at the Central Secretariat No 2 ground.

Scores: Indore: 165 for 9 in 35 overs (Gaurav Chabra 22, Shyam Ekadi 18, Kishore Sethi 3 for 26). Mumbai: 167 for 2 in 20.5 overs (Rajesh Singh 71 n.o, Tushar Singh 27, Asif Arodia 21 n.o).

Ratra to lead Haryana in Ranji 
Our Sports Reporter

Rohtak, October 15
National player Ajay Ratra will lead Haryana in the Ranji Trophy this season. Giving this information, Honorary Secretary of the Haryana Cricket Association, Mr Ranbir Singh Mahendra, said that 20 probables for the Haryana Ranji team were also finalised after trials held at Bhiwani.

According to Mr Mahendra, all the three selectors, namely Rajinder Goel, Aman Kumar and Rajesh Bawa, were present at the time of trials.

The selected probables will undergo a training camp to be held at Rohtak from 23 to November 7.

The list of probables announced includes the names of experienced Haryana cricketers Jitender Singh Sonu Sharma and Rajesh Puri, who have been recalled to the Haryana squad. Amit Mishra who was included in the India team for the first two Test matches against West Indies also finds a place in the team. The name of another wicket-keeper, Dharmender Phagna, also figures in the list.

He has been kept in the team keeping in view the probability of Ajay Ratra’s inclusion in the Test team. Amit Suman, who played for Delhi last year in the Ranji Trophy, will play for Haryana this season.

Following is the list of probables: Jitender Singh, Manvinder Bisla, Chetan Sharma, Shafiq Khan, Ajay Ratra (Captain and wicket-keeper), Ishan Ganda, Sumit Sharma, Amit Mishra, Gaurav Vashishta, Sonu Sharma, Amit Suman, Saurav Virmani, Joginder Sharma, Nitin Aggarwal, Sumit Narwal, Dharmender Phagna, Prashan Ahlawat, Parinder Sharma, Padamjit and Rajesh Puri.

Time-Distance family car rally
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, October 15
The second "Time, Distance and Speed" family car rally, organised by Rashi Entertainment, will be held on October 20. A guiding route map will be given to each participant, detailing the speed to be maintained, the time to be followed and the distance to be covered.

The rally will have surprise check points set up across the route, where the competitors have to get their time cards stamped. The rally will have participants from all brands of cars. A maximum of three people can ride in one car. The rally will pass through public roads and highways, observing all traffic rules and regulations.

Starting from Ashok Hotel, Chanakyrapuri at 11 am, the rally will culminate at Hotel Hill View, Surajkund, at 3 p.m. Entry forms are available at Ashok Hotel, Hotel Hill View and Delhi Press.

JRA trounce Fritolay India: JRA defeated Fritolay India by 124 runs in the opening match of the second Eventus Cup Cricket Tournament at the Palam ground. Arun Krishnan of JRA, who claimed four wickets for 14 runs, was adjudged the man of the match.

Scores: JRA: 228 all out in 25 overs (Ravi Chandran 74, 42b, 4x14, 6x1; Rajesh Natrajan 48, 24b, 4x8; Prashant Sinha 2 for 34 off 5 overs, Ashu Mangal 2 for 27 off 3 overs, Sunil Pandey 2 for 34 off 5 overs). Fritolay India: 104 all out in 17.3 overs (Samik Basu 22, 20b; Arun Krishnan 4 for 14 off 4 overs; Vikram Singh 3 for 45 off 5 overs). Daksh.com defeated Canon India by 156 runs. Scores: 199 for 7 wickets in 25 overs (Anupam Singhi 48, 42b; Kunal Rekhi 44, 36b; Dinesh Dua 2 for 34). Canon India: 43 all out in 10.4 overs (Suryakant 20, 29b; Vaibhav Sharma 5 for 15, Anupam Singhi 5 for 13).

Indian Yoga team victorious 

Rohtak, October 15
Seven member Indian Yoga team won the overall general championship in the XI World Cup Yoga Sports, held at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, recently.

Shahabad beat Aizawl in Nehru Hockey
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, October 15
SGNP Girls Senior Secondary School, Shahabad (Haryana) scored a stunning 9-0 victory against T H Memorial High School, Aizawl (Mizoram) in the 9th Nehru Girls Hockey Tournament at the Shivaji Stadium on Wednesday. The Haryana girls led by five goals at the interval.

In another match, Birsa Munda Vidyapitha, Rourkela (Orissa) trounced Kidwai Memorial Inter-College, Allahabad (UP) 9-0. The winners led by five goals at half time.

In an one-sided match, the Haryana girls scored at will to totally dominate the match. Gagandeep Kaur opened their account in the fourth minute, Harjinder Kaur scored the second, converting a penalty corner, the seventh and ninth goals, while Jasjeet Kaur, Ramneek Kaur, Ritu Rani and Arti Sharma scored a goal each.

Binita Xess scored a hattrick to star in Birsa Munda's victory against the Kidwai Memorial Inter-College. She struck the second, third and fourth goals after Pravasini Bage slotted in the first goal. Sangita Minz, Sarita Hanuman and Reena Kanti Ekka were the other scorers. Shahabad and Birsa Munda schools have qualified for the second stage of the tournament.

Hansraj Model School in semis
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, October 15
Fierce bowling performances by Sahil Arora (4 for 26) and Sachin Gaurav (3 for 26) helped Hansraj Model School defeat Gyan Bharti School, Saket by 76 runs and entered the semi-final of the Parle Cup Inter-School Under-17 Cricket Tournament at the Bharat Nagar ground. Sahil Arora was declared the man of the match.

Scores: Hansraj Model School: 168 for 9 in 40 overs (Manu Sharma 47, Ankur Garg 28, Ankur Julka 3 for 16, Manav Sharma 2 for 30). Gyan Bharti School, Saket: 92 all out in 32.1 overs (Manav Sharma 60, Sahil Arora 4 for 26, Sachin Gaurav 3 for 20, Ankur Garg 2 for 9).

GE Capital beat Kashyap in Phadkar cricket
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, October 15
GE Capital beat B L Kashyap by 19 runs in the sixth DG Phadkar Memorial Cricket Tournament at the Teri Oval.

Scores: GE Capital: 149 for 6 in 25 overs (Mitesh Sharma 36, 2x4; Rodney Charles 33, 2x4, 1x6; Harmeet Sodhi 3 for 33, Kanav Anand 2 for 26).

B L Kashyap: 130 all out in 35.5 over (Puneet Kashyap 40 n.o, 5x4; Kanav Anand 17, 3x4; Gaurav Verma 2 for 19, Joginder Singh 2 for 18). Mitesh Sharma of GE Capital was adjudged the man of the match.