The “rescuing hug” is a true story from a Massachusetts hospital in November 1995. Twin girls, Brielle and Kyrie Jackson, were born about 12 weeks early and kept in separate incubators. When Brielle, the smaller and weaker twin, became critically ill, a nurse placed her in her sister’s incubator. Brielle settled within minutes, her oxygen levels improved, and Kyrie’s arm came to rest around her. A newspaper photo of that moment travelled around the world and helped bring the practice of “co-bedding” twins into American neonatal units.
Many viral retellings get the details backwards, describing Kyrie as the dying twin. The original 1995 newspaper account is clear that it was Brielle who was in danger and Kyrie who was the stronger sister.
Born 12 weeks early
Brielle and Kyrie were born on 17 October 1995 to Heidi and Paul Jackson, at the Medical Center of Central Massachusetts in Worcester. Kyrie weighed about 1 kg (2 lb 3 oz) and began gaining weight quickly. Brielle weighed about 900 g (2 lb) and struggled from the start, with breathing and heart problems, low blood oxygen and slow weight gain.
As was standard practice in American hospitals at the time, the girls were placed in separate incubators. The reasoning was sound: very premature babies have fragile immune systems, and separating them was meant to reduce the risk of passing infections between them.
The night Brielle’s condition turned critical
On 12 November 1995, Brielle took a sudden turn for the worse. According to the account by reporter Nancy Sheehan, she was gasping, her face and limbs turned a grey-blue colour, her heart rate shot up and she began hiccupping, a known sign of stress in newborns. Nurse Gayle Kasparian cleared her airway and turned up her oxygen, but nothing calmed her.
Kasparian then remembered a practice she had heard was used in parts of Europe but was almost unknown in the United States: letting twins share a bed. It went against her unit’s usual rules, and her nurse manager was away at a conference. She asked the parents for permission, and they agreed.
The rescuing hug
As soon as Brielle was placed beside Kyrie, she began to settle. Within minutes her blood oxygen reached its best level since birth, her breathing eased and she fell asleep, with Kyrie’s small arm wrapped around her. The twins’ parents were watching as it happened.
The photograph above, taken by Chris Christo for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, ran with Sheehan’s story on 18 November 1995. It was later reproduced by Reader’s Digest and LIFE and covered by CNN, and it became one of the most widely shared images of newborn care. When the nurse manager, Susan Fitzback, returned and saw the twins together, she backed the decision. By coincidence, she had just attended a conference session on co-bedding.
Brielle recovered, and both girls went home. Their parents reported that the twins kept sleeping in the same bed for years, and reports from 2014, when the sisters were about 19, said they still shared the same tight bond.
What co-bedding is, and what the research says
Co-bedding means caring for twins or other multiples in the same incubator or cot, the way they lay together in the womb. After the Jackson story, a number of US hospitals tried it, and early reports suggested it might shorten hospital stays.
The evidence since then is more cautious. A 2016 Cochrane systematic review by Lai and colleagues looked at six small studies of stable preterm twins and found no clear difference between co-bedded and separately cared-for twins in weight gain, breathing pauses, length of stay or infection rates. The reviewers concluded that there was not enough evidence to recommend for or against co-bedding, and asked for larger studies that also measure possible harms, such as infection or mix-ups with medication.
In other words, the hug was real, and Brielle clearly improved that night, but one dramatic case cannot show that co-bedding works for every pair of twins. Decisions like this are made by the neonatal team for each baby.
Why touch matters for premature babies
The Jackson twins’ story fits into a much bigger body of research on touch and closeness. Kangaroo mother care, developed in Bogotá, Colombia, in 1978, keeps a premature or low-birth-weight baby in skin-to-skin contact with a parent. The World Health Organization recommends it, and studies link it to lower mortality, fewer infections and steadier temperature, heart rate and breathing in small babies.
That evidence concerns contact with parents, not between twins, but it points the same way: closeness is not just comforting, it can help a fragile body regulate itself. Parents of a baby in neonatal intensive care can ask the nursing team when holding or skin-to-skin contact is possible.
Common mix-ups in the viral version
- Which twin was dying? Brielle, the smaller twin, was the one in crisis. Kyrie was the stronger sister.
- Did the nurse risk her job? She broke with standard practice and acted without her manager present, but she asked the parents first, and her manager supported her afterwards. There is no record that her job was threatened.
- Was it a miracle? The improvement was real and fast. A likely explanation is the calming effect of warmth, touch and familiar closeness, not anything supernatural.
Sources: Nancy Sheehan, “The Rescuing Hug”, Worcester Telegram & Gazette, 18 November 1995 (reprinted in Reader’s Digest, French text); photo by Chris Christo; Live Action News, October 2014; Cochrane review: co-bedding in neonatal nursery for preterm twins (2016); Wikipedia: Kangaroo care.
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