Many students at U of T don’t know there is an Eye Bank located on campus at 1 Spadina Crescent.

Canada’s first eye bank was established in 1955, and is a unit of the Department of Ophthalmological and Vision Sciences at U of T.

Over two hundred eyes are donated to the eye bank every month. After consent is obtained from a patient’s family at the hospital, physicians retrieve the eyes and ship them to the eye bank. Over one hundred of the donated eyes are used for sight-restoring surgeries, and the eyes not used for transplants are donated, with consent, to research in the visual sciences.

A joint project between the Canadian Ophthalmological Society (COS) and the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB), the eye bank was built at U of T campus because of its central location.

“It’s considered a neutral area to promote the idea of fair and equitable distribution,” said Fides Coloma, manager of the Eye Bank.

Not affiliated with any particular hospital, the eye bank is close to many major transplant centres, allowing it to service many patients across the city.

The University of Toronto distributes money from an annual grant from the Ministry of Health and provides laboratory facilities and medical know-how. The CNIB promotes eye donations and covers the financial cost of the transportation of eyes.

The Eye Bank employs medical students, nursing students and dentistry students on a casual basis. Associate professors and ophthalmology residents are also affiliated with the facility.

“It gives students a chance to learn about their field of study in an applied setting,” said Coloma.

Although the eye bank is accessible 24 hours a day, after regular work hours there are no longer any personnel on site. To receive donations after hours, the Eye Bank relies on U of T’s Campus Police.

“The police are very committed and dedicated to helping us,” said Coloma.

The campus police arrange for the donated eyes to be delivered to their offices and then deliver them to the on-call doctor at the eye bank site.

The efforts of all involved with the eye bank have contributed to its success.

“It’s the largest eye bank in Canada and provides the most corneas for transplantation,” said Coloma.

Photograph by Simon Turnbull