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Media Articles
June 2007
PRESS RELEASE
For More Information Contact:
For Preferable
Release Date July 2007
Colleen Oltmann, CEBT, Director of Education
Southern Eye Bank 504-891-3937
coltmann@southerneye.net
Southern Eye Bank, a not for profit organization located in Metairie, Louisiana, recovers, evaluates and distributes corneal tissue to ophthalmic surgeons in Louisiana, the United States and worldwide. Our organization is celebrating 60 years of serving the community this year.
The field of ophthalmic medicine has evolved into a most amazing field. During the 1870’s, many attempts to transplant an animal cornea to a human recipient failed due to tissue rejection. Finally, an Austrian Physician named Eduard Zirm performed the first successful full-thickness corneal transplant in 1905 after obtaining tissue from an eleven year old.
Corneal transplants were infrequently performed until the early 1940’s- primarily because the country was void of an organized donor program and tissue was very rarely available. Dr. R. Townley Paton, then president of the Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital in New York was determined to obtain donor tissue for his patients. Each time a prisoner at Sing Sing Prison was executed, Dr. Paton would drive forty miles to recover the cornea. In 1944, Dr. Paton and a group of associates formed the center of sight restoration (the country’s first eye bank) in New York City.
The late Dr. George Haik, Sr. performed the first corneal transplant at the former Charity Hospital in 1943 by enucleating (removing) an eye of a living donor and transplanting the donor’s healthy cornea onto a sixteen year old who had lost his vision (due to a lime burn) one hour later. After the success of the transplant, the public embraced the notion that the blind could have their vision restored.
By the end of 1945 (WWII), blindness increased due to war trauma and disease. As corneal transplant surgery became more successful, the need for donor tissue multiplied. Eye Banks were created to meet this need. The Gulf States Eye Surgery Foundation in New Orleans as well as a handful of patrons, contributed funds to create an eye bank in the New Orleans area. New Orleans was chosen as the distribution center for the Southeastern portion of our great nation because of it was the outstanding medical center of the South. Thus in July of 1947, Southern Eye Bank opened its doors for business.
Three corneal transplants had been performed with donor eyes provided by Southern Eye Bank that first year and by March of 1952, more than 200 donor eyes had been provided for corneal transplantation. Since then, more than 25,000 corneas have been distributed worldwide with tissue from Southern Eye Bank. At present, approximately 35,000 corneal transplants are performed each year in the United States and 80,000 worldwide. There are now 80 eye-banks in the United States. All of whom share the same goal – to distribute corneal tissue to anyone in need of a sight-saving/restoring corneal transplant!
Hurricane Katrina, as it did many other businesses, gave us a fight but we were able to get back on our feet within two weeks. Our eye donor registry that dates back to 1947 was destroyed and our computer backup registry was destroyed as well. It may have been the intentions of hundreds of deceased individuals to donate their eyes to Southern Eye Bank upon their death; however, because we do not have any record of such intentions, we did not recover the tissue unless the deceased’s next of kin informed us their loved one intended to donate their eyes.
During Southern Eye Bank’s first year of operation, a massive education campaign about the need for eye donors was made to the public. What a success it was! Over 2,000 “pledge-cards” were obtained during the first 10 months and an additional 1,000 were received during the last two months. We would, once again, like to make a mass plea to the people of Southern Louisiana. While there is no waiting list for those awaiting a corneal transplant in Louisiana, there are thousands who wait in pain and darkness all over the world. Our goal is to increase the number of corneal transplants performed each year and to decrease the number of individuals who are blinded by corneal disease, injury or trauma. With access to the Louisiana State Donor Registry at every Department of Motor Vehicle department in our state, via the internet on our website www.southerneyebank.com, by phone, fax or written intention, it has never been easier to make one’s wishes known.
Corneal tissue is a “universal match” which simply means that there is no need for tissue typing or blood matching; any race can donate to any race, male to female, young to old and vise-versa. The cornea, which is the size of a contact lens, is the only tissue that is transplanted, the whole eye is not. This is a common fallacy.
2007 marks the 102nd anniversary of the corneal transplant, the 70th anniversary of the first corneal transplant in Louisiana and the 60th anniversary of Southern Eye Bank.
For more information about the corneal transplant and how to become a donor, call Southern Eye Bank at 504-891-3937 or access the web address at www.Southerneyebank.com
MARCH 2007
PRESS RELEASE
For More Information Contact:
For Immediate
Release
Colleen Oltmann, CEBT, Director of Education
Southern Eye Bank
504-891-3937
coltmann@southerneye.net
REPRESENTATIVE FRED UPTON (R-MI) TO PROCLAIM
NATIONAL EYE DONOR MONTH FOR 2006
WASHINGTON, DC – The Eye Bank Association of America
(EBAA) announced today that Michigan’s
District 6 Representative Fred Upton (R-MI) will proclaim
March 2007 National Eye Donor Month.
Mr. Upton, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee
and a member of its Subcommittee
on Health, has championed the cause of donation and particularly
the needs of the nation’s eye banks. The
Congressman was instrumental in helping pass H.R. 399, “The
Organ Donation Improvement Act,” through
the House of Representatives in 2003. Mr. Upton helped to
ensure that the donation process includes and
recognizes the contributions of all the partners in donation.
The EBAA is proud to have Mr. Upton be the sponsor of Eye
Donor Month for 2007, as it marks the
centennial of the first corneal transplant performed in
1905 by Dr. Eduard Zirm. The EBAA looks forward
to working with him in the future to continue to promote
eye donation and the work of eye banks on a state
and national level.
National Eye Donor Month has been proclaimed every year
since 1983 to raise awareness of the need to
donate eyes. The EBAA proudly thanks Mr. Upton for his efforts
to help in the mission to restore sight.
The Eye Bank Association of America (EBAA), established
in 1961, is the oldest transplant association in the
nation. The EBAA is dedicated to the restoration of sight
through the promotion and advancement of eye
banking. It has led the transplantation field with the establishment
of medical standards for the distribution of
eyes and comprehensive training and certification programs
for eye banking personnel. These standards have
been used as models for other transplantation organizations.
Member eye banks operate in the United States,
Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. These eye banks
make possible more than 45,000 sight-restoring
corneal transplants annually. In Louisiana, more than 700
people had received corneal transplants in 2006.
For more
information on how you can become a potential donor, call
Southern Eye Bank inLouisiana at 504-891-3937 or log on
to the web-site at www.southerneyebank.com.
# # #
EBAA •1015 18th Street, NW, Suite 1010 • Washington,
DC 20036 • www.restoresight.org
Southern Eye Bank
4621 West Napoleon Avenue, Suite 209
October
21, 2006
For more information, please
contact:
Southern Eye Bank (504) 891-3937
Colleen Oltmann, CEBT
Director of Education and Development
FOR
IMMEDEIATE RELEASE
THE
GIFT OF SIGHT
New
Orleans , Louisiana.---- Pies are baking and leaves are
falling. Southern Louisiana is preparing to celebrate the
holidays with friends and family. Oh how busy this time
of year can be! Stores will soon be full of shoppers purchasing
gifts for everyone on their holiday lists. Gifts for family,
gifts for friends, gifts for business associates and such
- the list goes on and on. While many families are purchasing
gifts that can be unwrapped on Christmas morning or presented
during holiday gatherings, some families are pledging a
gift that does not come from a store and cannot be bought.
This gift is the GIFT OF SIGHT.
Southern
Eye Bank, a non profit 501 (c) (3) organization understands
the importance of The GIFT OF SIGHT. This very simple
to give and does not need to be given only during the holiday
season. It is a most precious and generous gift that only
requires a simple "yes" and the only cost is a little love.
Pledging to give the GIFT OF SIGHT starts with the decision
to donate ocular tissue at the time of death. There are
a few ways to pledge this gift once the decision to donate
has been made. The Louisiana State Donor Registry contains
the names of thousands of fellow Louisiana who have decided
to donate ocular tissue. To be included in the Louisiana
State Donor Registry, a donor card from Southern Eye Bank
could be signed as well as by registering at the Department
of Motor Vehicles when a driver's license is renewed. The
Louisiana State Donor Registry can also be accessed on Southern
Eye Bank's web-site at www.southerneyebank.com
. It is important to understand that these simple ways
to register as a potential donor are not legal and binding
contracts; they are only an expression of a wish. The potential
donor's next-of-kin will ultimately be the deciding factor
in donation. Upon death, the potential donor's next-of-kin
will be asked if donation would be considered. If a family
discussion about this subject is not talked about, the default
answer is normally "no". If the decision about donation
is made, family members should know. Whether the decision
is for donation or against donation, allow family members
to have the answer to a question that will be inevitably
asked.
NOTE:
If you are or know of a recipient of a corneal transplant
and wish to send a letter or note to the donor's family,
thanking them for the GIFT OF SIGHT, simply visit our web
site for instructions or call our office. Southern Eye Bank
offers speakers to educate about the need for ocular tissue.
To schedule a speaker, call our New Orleans office at (504)
891-3937 or our Lafayette office at (337) 593-8883.
The
GIFT OF SIGHT was given to nearly 700
people who had a corneal transplant performed last year.
The corneal transplant is not only the most common but the
most successful of all transplants, more than 95% successful.
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