9 March 2016 12:37 am Views - 2015
Though she felt nervous at first she has now mastered this surgical art of removing the corneas from the eyes of dead persons. She says, “earlier I was scared to return home alone from a funeral house, but now with time I have overcome this fear and now can be at the bedside of a dead person at any time of the day and remove the corneas and have them sent to the eye donors hospital in Colombo promptly. Some of the villagers are scared on seeing me. They call me by various names, but I am not the least concerned - I do this job as I consider it to be an act of generosity.”
She is the mother of three children. The two elder daughters are married and living separately. Her youngest son Iresha (10) lives with her and attends Pallegama Siddhartha College. Her husband K.S. Sunil (50) is engaged in tea plantation.
Chandrika has been involved in this activity for the past three years. Having received a two months training at the Eye donors’ hospital she now handles the removal of corneas from those who die in Akuressa, Pitabeddara, and Deniyaya in the Morawaka Korale, villages around her place of birth. She has earned much repute for her service to society, despite some regarding her as an evil to be shunned upon.
Chandrika because of her ability to ride a cycle, motor cycle or even climb a tree had been able to attend to this task quickly, strictly observing the time limits. The corneas had to be removed from persons within three hours of their death and should be sent to the Colombo Eye Donor Association headquarters within the next twelve hours. In this activity her husband too helps her.
Earlier even if a person had volunteered to donate his eyes after his death, there was no one in the village who could attend to this. At the beginning she had also feared, but she has now overcome this trepidation. She is also capable in embalming a dead body. In her work there is no day time or night time as sometimes when she returns with the corneas from a far off place it is past midnight, but it does not deter her. She remembers one incident where a cornea was grafted to a youth who suffered severe injuries to one of his eyes at a tea factory in the village. After he was cured and able to see he had not said a word of thanks to her. Her generous and meritorious act of making people to see had earned her a reputation of so many, including her husband, who refer to her as a Vishaka..