Bengaluru, Jul 16 (DHNS): The first-ever skin bank in the State is expected to start functioning in the next two months at the Victoria Hospital. Medical equipment, including cold storage, worth Rs 60 lakh will be imported.

This was announced by Dr P K Devdas, dean and director, Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI), on Wednesday.

Speaking on the occasion of National Plastic Surgery Day at the trauma centre of Victoria Hospital here, he said the hospital had tied up with a private firm and Bangalore Rotary Midtown, which has donated Rs 60 lakh, and the National Burns Centre, Mumbai, which has trained two plastic surgeons.

Dr Devdas said the donated skin could be stored for up to five years and any hospital could utilise it without making any payment. A helpline will be shortly launched and those interested can register their names.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Sunil Keshwani from the National Burns Centre said that while eye donation gives sight to the blind, skin donation saves the lives of burns victims.

He said that every year nearly 70 lakh burns cases are reported in the country and those who suffer burns in an accident can be saved by performing immediate skin transplant. With the number of burn injury cases increasing in the City, there was a need for more of such skin banks to help burn injury patients, he said.

Sunitha, a burns victim who used to joke with doctors who treated her, asking them to donate their skin to her, said her joke about skin transplantation had become a reality now.

Unable to bear the harassment by her husband, Sunitha had tried to commit suicide by setting herself ablaze. She survived burns, with more than 20 surgeries.

Sunitha said that the skin bank would prove to be a boon for burn injury patients, who suffer not just physically but also mentally.