Even though the sudden demise of popular Kannada actor Puneeth Rajkumar left his fans and family distraught, he has made them proud by donating his eyes.

While Rajkumar’s passing away due to heart attack last week on Friday was shocking, his brother Raghavendra even in that hour of grief without wasting any time, called up the eye bank to collect the cine star’s eyes for donation.

At the time when people in large numbers were bidding their final goodbye to Rajkumar, doctors and specialists were busy transplanting his corneas into the eyes of four patients.

Donation of eyes is something very close to the family, as the actor’s father and superstar Dr Rajkumar had donated his eyes in 2006 while Parvathamma, his mother followed suit in 2017.

Talking to NDTV, Dr Bhujang Shetty, Chairman and Managing Director of Narayana Nethralaya said: “I got a call from Raghavendra Rajkumar. It was he who called me when Dr Rajkumar died too. He said, "Doctor, this has happened. Kindly come and collect the eyes’."

Having collected the two corneas, the doctors of the Narayana Nethralaya took up the challenge of splitting them to benefit more people.

Shetty remarked: "We planned to split the cornea into half and give the front portion to two people who have front corneal defect. And the back to two who have back corneal defects. We have never done it before with two eyes of one person and all with all 4 people on the same day."

Describing the challenges, he said: "It was a logistic challenge, but definitely worth all the effort. It needs a huge team. A team of 6 corneal specialists operated for almost 8 hours across 3 operation theatres to do this job because he deserved it.”

With their heart-throb star Rajkumar and his family setting a stellar example, more than 1,000 people have pledged to donate their eyes to an eye bank, named after Dr Rajkumar since Puneeth's death.

Sharing details, the Manager of the Dr. Rajkumar Eye Bank told NDTV: "Our beloved Puneeth Rajkumar donated his eyes. Within 4 days, we collected 28 eyes. In one night, we collected 10 eyes. People are calling 24X7. They are asking how to donate eyes. They are calling from all over Karnataka, also from remote places."

This is an important development considering that India already has low eye donation numbers and the figure came down drastically during the Covid-19 pandemic. T

Shetty averred: "In our country, more than 15 to 20 lakh people require this kind of surgery. They are called corneal blind people and they can get eyesight only if someone donates. But unfortunately in our country there is a big shortage and a huge gap between demand and supply. Overall, we collect around 55 to 60 thousand eyes throughout the country in a year. It is just not sufficient for the huge backlog.”

The late actor even after his death can become an icon for triggering a budding movement for organ donations.

Also read: Family honours Kannada superstar Puneeth Kumar’s wish to donate eyes just like his parents