Olivia Lettich self-identifies as one of the Calgary Flames’ biggest fans and has been to a few games before, but the 11-year-old hadn’t been able to see the action until Sunday thanks to eSight’s new eSight 3 low vision glasses.
We had a special guest on the bench today! Olivia is watching her #Flames for the 1st time thanks to specialized glasses for the blind! pic.twitter.com/OAkS5dlcxg
— Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) March 5, 2017
As a four-month-old baby, Letttich was diagnosed with bilateral retinoblastoma – a rare form of eye cancer that is most common in children. She reportedly became legally blind as a result of nine rounds of chemotherapy and 50 radiation treatments and at age two, she lost her right eye. Now, her left eye only provides her with peripheral vision.
But on Sunday at the Flames game against the New York Islanders, she was able to see everything clearly. The eSight 3 glasses that Lettich wore use a high-speed and high-definition camera to capture and enhance the video feed that she see on two screens in front of her eyes.
“I was able to see the shots and the players’ numbers and it was fast,” Lettich told the Calgary Sun.
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Decked out in a Johnny Gaudreau jersey, Lettich got to sit on the Flames’ bench before the game and go on the ice during the singing of the national anthems. Afterwards she got to meet her favorite players: Gaudreau, Mark Giordano and Sean Monahan.
“She’ll never forget this day, ever. She’s had goose bumps all day and so have I. It’s so exciting,” Lettich’s mom, Meredith told the Calgary Sun.
Esight was founded in 2006 and has created devices that help legally blind people see ever since.