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Watch the Magical Moment this Legally Blind Mother Sees Her Newborn for the First Time

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Kathy Beitz, 29, from Guelph, Canada, has a degenerative eye condition called Stargardt disease that’s left her with only a little bit of blurry peripheral vision, Guelph Mercury reported. She’s considered legally blind. Stargardt disease is a form of inherited juvenile macular degeneration that causes the loss of central vision and also affects the ability to see color, according to Fighting Blindness.

Beitz never expected to be given the opportunity to see her own child, but thanks to a special pair of glasses, she was able to look closely at her son, Askel, after his birth last December, according to Guelph Mercury.

A company called eSight developed the glasses, which work by combining camera display technology and advanced computing to deliver a real-time video, according to the eSight website. The user can change brightness or increase zoom until they can see, according to eSight’s website. The product is designed for people with low to very slight vision, but doesn’t work for the completely blind.

I think he looks like us,” Beitz says in the video below. “For the first baby that I actually get to look at, it being my own is very overwhelming. Even to get to look at my husband look at him is such a good feeling.”

See the touching moment in the video below: 

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Originally published: January 21, 2015
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