Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote, “’Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”
This may be true for love. If you have loved before, you know what you’re missing after you have lost it. If you’ve never loved before, you don’t know what you’re missing. We even use that phrase to entice people to get involved and do things… “You need to go to Vienna. You don’t know what you’re missing.”
So, Lord Tennyson may have been right about love… but may not be about sight.
People with Stargardt disease lose their sight, so they might disagree with this 19th century English poet.
Stargardt disease is a form of macular degeneration most commonly presenting during childhood.
People with the disease lose the ability to see in their central field of vision, meaning they cannot look directly at something. The peripheral vision is largely left unaffected; however, fine features are rarely discernable in peripherals.
According to Fox News Health, Yvonne Felix began losing her sight at just seven years old. By the time she was a teen, her vision was substantially impacted to the point that she had difficulty finding a job. Despite the challenges she faced because of her disease, she married and now has two children.
When Yvonne first heard about revolutionary electronic glasses by eSight for people like her, she was skeptical. Her skepticism wasn’t enough to prevent her from volunteering to try the glasses. During the trial, the results overwhelmed her. She could clearly see her husband and children’s faces for the first time. She had no blind or fuzzy spots in her vision thanks to the glasses.
The company released the third generation of these glasses earlier this year. The eSight 3 provides wearers with high definition resolution and detail. This generation also offers easy shifts between near and long range visual acuity. All this technological improvement comes at some cost, nearly $10,000 per unit.
With eSight’s advancements, maybe we won’t need to answer if it’s better to have seen and lost, than never to have seen at all.
Read more about Yvonne and her experiences with eSight by clicking here.
