{"id":26949,"date":"2026-10-19T13:49:43","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T09:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/?p=26949"},"modified":"2026-10-19T13:49:58","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T09:49:58","slug":"the-rescuing-hug-how-the-twins-story-changed-medical-views-on-their-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/the-rescuing-hug-how-the-twins-story-changed-medical-views-on-their-care\/","title":{"rendered":"“The Rescuing Hug” \u2014 How the Twins’ Story Changed Medical Views on Their Care"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On October 17, 1995, in Massachusetts, the story of twin sisters Brielle and Kyrie Jackson, born 12 weeks premature, became a symbol of changing medical practices and the unique power of human touch.<\/p>\n

The twin sisters, Kyrie and Brielle Jackson, were born 12 weeks premature, with each baby weighing just under 1 kilogram (2 pounds). Under the standard protocol at the time, the premature twins were placed in separate incubators to reduce the risk of infection.<\/p>\n

Kyrie weighed about 85 grams more than her sister, which gave her a significant advantage as a premature infant \u2014 she developed relatively stably and was gaining weight. However, nearly a month after birth, Brielle’s condition deteriorated sharply. The infant developed acute respiratory distress, her blood oxygen levels dropped critically, her heart rate spiked, and her skin turned a bluish-gray color.<\/p>\n

Gayle Kasparian, a nurse in the intensive care unit, tried every standard method: she increased oxygen delivery, cleared the airways, held the baby, and had the father hold her as well, but to no avail.<\/p>\n

After these futile attempts, the nurse recalled a European practice of placing premature twins in the same incubator. At that time, the “Kangaroo Care” method (skin-to-skin contact between parent and baby) was already used in the US, but such baby-to-baby contact and placing them in a single incubator had never been carried out in American clinics. Although it violated hospital rules, with the parents’ consent, the nurse moved Brielle into Kyrie’s incubator.<\/p>\n

As soon as she was placed in the incubator, Brielle snuggled up to her sister. Within seconds, Kyrie wrapped her left arm around her little sister. The infant’s crying and gasping stopped instantly; within minutes, Brielle’s blood oxygen level stabilized, her breathing regulated, her heart rate and body temperature normalized, and her skin regained its natural, healthy color.<\/p>\n

Captured by Chris Christo, a photographer for the local newspaper Worcester Telegram & Gazette<\/i>, the image titled “The Rescuing Hug” circulated worldwide and was published in outlets such as Life<\/i> and Reader\u2019s Digest<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Both girls were discharged from the hospital completely healthy. Today, they are 31 years old, remain close to each other, and fondly recall the story that heightened medical interest in co-bedding premature twins and paved the way for further research into the benefits of this approach.<\/p>\n

wellsprings<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On October 17, 1995, in Massachusetts, the story of twin sisters Brielle and Kyrie Jackson, born 12 weeks premature, became a symbol of changing medical practices and the unique power of human touch. The twin sisters, Kyrie and Brielle Jackson, were born 12 weeks premature, with each baby weighing just under 1 kilogram (2 pounds). […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":26948,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1594,1587],"tags":[3021],"class_list":["post-26949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-research","tag-neonatologia"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26949"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26951,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26949\/revisions\/26951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}