In a truly heartwarming story a 12 year old boy who is legally blind all his life was given the gift of sight when he was doctors gave him new electronic glasses that allowed him to see his mum for the very first time recently.
The young boy named Christopher Ward, Jr., from Forest, Virginia, made the trip to Washington D.C., a few weeks ago to demo a new wearable technology called eSight. Christopher was chosen to use the new technology which is a hands-free headset that contains a small, high-speed camera that captures live video, which is sent to a LED screen in front of the user’s eyes, allowing them to see with “unprecedented visual clarity.”
The historic moment was all to much for Christopher’s delighted mum Marquita Hackley, who told that witnessing her son use the new technology that allowed him to “really see for the first time in his 12 years of life” was “overwhelming and exciting.”
The emotional mum explained: “The very first thing he did was turn to me and say, ‘Oh, Mommy! There you are!” Marquita, 32, told reporters. “And then to hear him say, ‘I saw my mom, and she was very pretty,’ was so heartwarming. And aside from pretty, just the fact he could even see me meant the whole world to me.”
During the extensive test Christopher also got to watch his favorite TV show “SpongeBob,” Hackley said. She explained that though her son “watches TV a little bit at home, [but] in order to see anything, he has to be directly up on the TV” and that “even then, he still can’t see all that clearly.”
The story is all the more moving as Christopher was born with optic nerve hypoplasia, meaning his optic nerve never fully developed before birth. His mum told went on to say that her son “only has little light perception in his left eye and very, very low vision in his right eye.” “Something has to be up in his face, almost touching for him to see it,” she said. “And even though Ward wears glasses on a daily basis, they’re more for protection than vision because there is a strong possibility he could lose the little sight he does have if were to get hurt or hit on the face.”
Clearly overwhelmed by the technology the over the moon mum said she is now raising money to buy eSight for Ward, explaining that the glasses cost $15,000 and her insurance doesn’t cover it.
Marquita says she fully believes the technology could change Ward’s life and open up more opportunities, such as getting more chances to stay in regular classes and learning how to read and write print.
Currently, Ward has to use a braille reader and writer to communicate through text, Marquita said. “Christopher is just a very loving kid, always happy and never complains about anything,” she said. “I’ll do anything to help get him what he deserves.”