Kathy Beitz, a woman declared legally blind since she was 11 years old recently became the subject of a viral video in which she sees her newborn baby for the first time with the aid of special glasses called eSight.
The video entitled Blind Woman Sees Her Son for the Very First Time, has been viewed by 1,416,884 times on YouTube and liked 1,690 times by users of the video sharing platform.
In the YouTube video, Beitz can be seen wearing the special glasses that aid people who are visually impaired using sophisticated technology. Each pair reportedly costs $15,000.
According to the eSight website, the glasses "combine a camera, display technology, and advanced computing to deliver a real-time video that enables sight for people with vision loss."
The site further explains that users can also control and adjust the images by magnification.
Based on a report by Abcnews.com, Beitz became the beneficiary of eSight's outreach programme as the glasses are not covered by her insurance. Only 140 people have eSight glasses in North America.
Beitz suffers from Stargardt, a form of progressive macular degeneration that causes deterioration of visual acuity. Beitz has suffered from a blind spot in the centre of her vision since she was young.
The touching first meeting between Beitz and her baby Aksel was uploaded by Beitz's sister Yvonne Felix, who is also legally blind. Felix also uses the same technology in her daily life.
"Oh my God, Oh my gosh," Beitz can be heard saying in the video as her family hands her the baby. She gushes over her baby's resemblance to her husband's and her own features.
According to Felix, it was the first time her sister saw a baby since becoming blind and it was also the first time for her to actually see her husband.
"For the first baby that I get to actually look at being my own is very overwhelming," she said. "And even to look at my husband looking at him is such a good feeling."
