Local Blind Man Sees His Wife And Kids For The First Time

CATAWBA, NC — A local man who’s been blind for more than a decade is able to see his wife and children. It’s thanks to a high-tech pair of glasses his wife found online.

“I probably haven’t seen myself in the mirror in probably 10 to 15 years,” says Catawba resident David Stephenson.

Doctors diagnosed David with Retinitis Pigmentosa when he was 8-years-old. It’s a genetic disorder that causes loss of vision.

“They told me I would be completely blind by 18.”

David’s wife, Brandi, discovered high-tech vision glasses called E-sight while searching the internet for ways to help her husband.

“It’s going to give David independence, and that’s what we’re looking for,” says Brandi Stephenson.

The glasses were not cheap. They cost $10,000. So, David’s sister started a Go-Fund-Me page last month. In just 11 days, thousands of dollars raised. The E-sight glasses arrived on Friday. David and his family ripped open the box right away.

David saw his wife, two teenage daughters and two-year-old son.

“Just to hear him say that he could see my smile, he could see the water in my eyes and Kiersten‘s eyes the oldest daughter. That he could see that kind of detail it really sank in at that moment,” says Brandi.