The monitor alarms screamed through the neonatal intensive care unit. Inside the incubator, a three-week-old infant gasped for air, her skin turning a terrifying shade of blue. Her oxygen levels were plummeting, and her heart rate raced dangerously high.
Nurses watched as traditional medical interventions failed one by one. Life and death hung in the balance for tiny Brielle Jackson on that November day in 1995. What happened next broke hospital protocol and made medical history.
The Critical Decline
Kyrie and Brielle Jackson were born 12 weeks premature on October 17, 1995, at The Medical Center of Central Massachusetts in Worcester. They weighed only about 2 pounds (0.9 kilograms) each. Doctors placed the twins in separate incubators to reduce the risk of cross-infection, following the standard procedure of the time.
Kyrie, the slightly larger sister, thrived and gained weight steadily. Brielle, however, struggled from the start. On November 12, her condition turned critical. Her breathing became labored, and she turned cold and clammy.
A Breaking of Protocol
Gayle Kasparian, the nurse on duty, tried everything to stabilize the fading infant. She suctioned Brielle’s breathing passages and increased the oxygen flow to the incubator. Nothing worked. Brielle’s oxygen saturation dropped, and her heart rate soared to 180 beats per minute.
Kasparian held the baby, hoping human contact would help, but Brielle remained in distress. The nurse remembered a technique she had heard about in Europe but which was virtually unknown in the United States: double-bedding multiples. With few options left, Kasparian made a decision. She asked the parents for permission and placed the stronger twin, Kyrie, into the incubator with her dying sister.
The Physical Connection
The effect was almost instantaneous. As soon as Kasparian closed the incubator door, Kyrie shifted her small body. She snuggled up to Brielle and draped her tiny arm over her sister’s shoulders. Brielle’s heart rate stabilized within minutes. Her blood-oxygen levels rose to safe numbers.
As the warmth from Kyrie transferred to Brielle, her body temperature returned to normal. The chaotic alarms silenced. The two sisters slept peacefully side by side.
The Photograph That Changed Medicine
A photographer named Chris Christo from the Worcester Telegram & Gazette was at the hospital that day. He captured the image of the twins asleep in the incubator, with Kyrie’s arm wrapped protectively around Brielle. The newspaper ran the photo with the caption “The Rescuing Hug.”
The picture circulated globally, appearing in Life magazine and Reader’s Digest. The twins went home healthy weeks later. Because of this single event, The Medical Center of Central Massachusetts changed its policy on co-bedding premature twins.