Photos of a father and son in skin-to-skin therapy are being misused to represent a false and unscientific narrative - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
July 6, 2022
A post is being circulated on social media saying that, to save a premature baby boy, a hole was ripped into his father’s chest to supply oxygen to him. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: For months, a father gave oxygen to his son from his lungs through a hole ripped in his chest.
Fact: This picture is of the husband of Jenny Sanchez (@jdazzle101). It shows her prematurely born son, Fontaine Dickey receiving skin-to-skin therapy from his father, RaSean Dickey. A hole was not ripped into RaSean’s chest to provide Oxygen to his prematurely-born son as claimed in the post. Hence the claim is MISLEADING.
After performing a reverse image search, we found a Facebook post leading us to an Instagram user account, jdazzle101, that belongs to Jenny Sanchez. Jenny is from Denver, USA. An image similar to the one from the post was found on her IG timeline. Going through her IG, we understood that her son Fontaine Dickey was born prematurely and was in ICU before he could safely go home.
A post shared by Jenny Sanchez (@jdazzle101)
The images on her Instagram account show her husband, RaSean Dickey, giving their baby skin-to-skin therapy. They can be seen here, here and here. The story of her child appeared on various news websites, which can be read here, here and here. It was claimed in the post that a hole was ripped into the father’s chest to supply oxygen to the baby, but we can see in these pictures that there is no such hole.
A post shared by Jenny Sanchez (@jdazzle101)
An oxygen pipe can be seen too, which is not coming from the father’s chest. It was also mentioned in the post that this continued for months, but we found on her Instagram page that she posted a picture of her son on a separate bed only a few weeks later. She has also stated through another Instagram post that, “People have taken my photo and created their own stories about my family and son that have no truth !” With all this, it can be concluded that the claim made in the post is misleading. A  family’s ordeal is being misused to spread unscientific narratives on social media.
A post shared by Jenny Sanchez (@jdazzle101)
What is skin-to-skin therapy?
Skin-to-skin care, also known as kangaroo therapy is when a diapered baby is laid on the bare check of their father or between their mother’s breasts. Studies show that premature babies can be great benefit from receiving Skin-to-Skin therapy. Since the babies look less at their caregiver, direct contact can help them. More about this can be found here, here and here.
To summarise, photos of a father and son in skin-to-skin therapy are being misused to represent a false and unscientific narrative.