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Five blind people get eye transplant to witness the royal wedding

For the 65 year-old Dunchen Dem from Zhemgang, the royal wedding of His Majesty to Queen Jetsun Pema Wangchuck was extra special. Having lived in darkness for the last 18 years of her life, she couldn’t have wished for a better time to get her vision back.

Squatting on the bed in the hospital ward, she flips through a magazine strewn with the pictures of the Royal couple. As she sees the Queen’s portrait, for the first time in her life, she holds the magazine on her head, her already moist eyes give in and tears stream down her face. She then lets out stifled sobs.

When she stops sobbing after a while, she caresses the picture with her frail fingers, and almost instantly says, “The Queen is very beautiful.”

Dunchen Dem is among the fortunate four who received corneal transplant on Wednesday last week. “I am so happy I can see and I am glad that I will be able to witness the historic event,” she said the day before the wedding.

A week before the wedding, the Tilganga Eye Hospital in Nepal donated five corneas to the Thimphu hospital. Without donors of its own, hospitals in the country depend on organs received from outside the country. The Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital (JDWNRH) has been receiving corneas from Tilganga Eye Hospital although there is no formal agreement between the two.

Karma lost her eyesight due to an injury. However, after 17 years of agonizing wait, she finally got her eye operated last week. The 51 year-old from Paro is euphoric although only one of her eyes was operated on. She hopes to get her other eye operate someday. “But for now, it is better to have one eye than none,” she says, with a grin.

Almost in childish excitement, she said, “now that I have got my eyesight, I can witness the Royal wedding. Although my eye has not healed well I will be able to see it on TV.” The mother of three also said that getting an eye on the eve of the wedding is the biggest gift she could have ever expected.

Twenty one year-old, Shiva Kumar Ghalley, who has been blind since he was one year-old, also received the transplant. Initially, he said he faced problems knowing the colors. “I didn’t know the colors; which color was which. Everything for me was black,” he said. “When people said the shirt is red or white, in my mind, it was black because I never got the chance to learn which color is red or white. However now I know what a red color looks like.”

Despite being disabled, he has worked as a dishwasher with a restaurant at Tshimakoti in Chukha. “I know I couldn’t see but these were some few things I could do and I needed to earn a living,” he said.

“I have never had a chance to see the King and I am definitely going to be the part of the celebrations of the Royal wedding,” he said.

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Tashi Air and Drukair to operate domestic air

Tashi Air and Drukair has been given the approval to operate domestic air service in the country.

The airlines were approved by the Cabinet yesterday on the basis that the two projects had submitted an independent ‘project document’ as required and had responded thoroughly and meaningfully to the requirements of the project manifest.

Domestic air service will start by March 1 next year but the Ministry of Information and Communications will grant a flexibility period of one month which means the deadline of operation will be April 1 next year.

After obtaining the domestic air license, Tashi Air will be allowed to operate international air services. A third party, Bhutan Air Private Limited which also made its bid was disqualified.

This is because the Bhutan Air Private Limited had not responded adequately to the requirements of the project manifest. Bhutan Air Private Limited apparently has not made any move towards establishment of a ‘Unit Airline Company’ comprising four partners and has not fulfilled the preliminary requisites such as office location, equipment and installations which were required to be evidenced in the ‘project document’.

The release from the Prime Minister’s office stated that Drukair met all the requirements while Tashi Air which submitted a proposal along commercial lines was deemed financially strong.

According to the project document, Drukair has opted that it will be able to execute the necessary agreement upon being awarded the contract for procurement of any of the DHC 6 or ATR aircraft.

On the other hand, Tashi Air has made a selection of a brand new self owned PC-12 which is a single-engine turboprop passenger and cargo aircraft manufactured by Pilatus Aircraft of Switzerland.