Here's the translation: Àltima signs agreement with the Eye Bank to promote donations

May 12, 2016– Josep Ventura, General Director of Funeral Services at Àltima, and Dr. Rafael Barraquer, Director of the Medical Auditing Team at the Eye Bank for Treating Blindness (BUTC), have signed a collaboration agreement to promote eye donations.

Through this agreement, Àltima reaffirms its social commitment and will collaborate with BUTC in raising awareness among its users about eye donation (through newsletters, posters, etc.), as well as in the information and recruitment of eye donors.

Àltima is a Catalan business group with over 300 years of experience in the funeral sector, covering the entire process of death, from funeral services to cemetery management, through funeral homes and administrative concessions for public cemeteries.

This long experience has allowed them to manage an integrated network of 29 funeral homes, 6 crematorium complexes, and 16 cemeteries in Catalonia, performing over 12,600 services annually. Their service philosophy is based on a commitment to families, providing services designed to facilitate the entire funeral process. They manage the entire process, from the initial notification of death to the final stages (beyond the burial), ensuring that families can say goodbye to their loved ones with the confidence that everything is in the best hands. This collaboration agreement with BUTC is part of this policy.

On the other hand, BUTC maintains an active registry of nearly 175,000 individuals who have expressed their wish to donate their eyes upon death. Each year, it receives over 1,000 donations from individuals who, upon their death, donate their eyes to restore sight through corneal transplants.

Recent surgical techniques have expanded the range of people who can benefit from corneal transplants (including total keratoplasty, anterior lamellar keratoplasty, or posterior lamellar keratoplasty). It is also noteworthy that ocular tissue that was previously unsuitable for total transplantation can now be used for anterior lamellar transplantation. This improves the optimization of received donations.

Anyone can be a donor. Only donors with infectious diseases are initially excluded. Age or conditions such as cataracts or myopia do not disqualify potential donors; a microscopic examination will ultimately determine the suitability of the donated ocular tissue.