Fundraising Site Apologizes for Calling Premature Baby Photo 'Too Graphic'

Jacob Hinks was born prematurely. GoFundMe originally wouldn’t put the family’s fundraising effort for Jacob in its directory because it thought a photo of him might offend some viewers. GoFundMe has since apologized and put his image in its directory.

When Jacob Hinks came into the world on June 30, he weighed just 1 pound, five ounces — barely the size of an adult hand.

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Born via emergency C-section 13 weeks early after his mom, Christina Hinks, was diagnosed with placenta failure, Jacob soon developed serious complications. The most dangerous: kidney failure, which has kept him on dialysis at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago for the past two days.

Jacob is clearly a fighter, and he’s holding his own right now. But because his battle in the neonatal intensive care unit will likely be a long one, his parents took unpaid leave from their jobs to be with him every day. To help with expenses, a friend set up a crowd-funding page on popular site GoFundMe.

That’s when a different kind of battle began. “Soon after it went up, my friend’s brother-in-law tried to search for Jacob’s page, but it wasn’t in the site directory,” Christina tells Yahoo Parenting. If the page wasn’t in the directory, she says, it would be difficult to find on the site.

Jeff and Christina Hinks with their little fighter, Jacob. (Photo: Christina Hinks)

A call to GoFundMe clued them into why the company didn’t put the page in their directory. Staffers at the site deemed a photo of Jacob too “graphic” and potentially offensive to some viewers.

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The Hinks were shocked, especially because there was nothing particularly unusual about the photo of Jacob. Like so many preemies, it shows him to be very small, with a breathing mask over his mouth and almost translucent skin.

“I was like, ‘I’m a mom — don’t tell me his photo is too graphic,’” recalls Christina. “He’s a preemie, and he’s a miracle.”

Christina pressed the site to change course and include Jacob’s page in their search directory, but for days, she felt she was getting nowhere. So the Hinks alerted local media to their plight and replaced the photo of Jacob with a different family shot.

That resulted in a call from a GoFundMe vice president. “He apologized up and down and assured us that Jacob’s photo was not too graphic,” says Christina. To help right the situation, GoFundMe issued an apology — and donated $10,000 to Jacob’s fund.

In a statement to Yahoo Parenting, GoFundMe media director Kelsea Little confirmed the Hinks’s story and also clarified that the company is currently reviewing its photo policy.

She also confirmed the $10,000 donation. “We are happy to help the Hinks family in their time of need, just as thousands of other people do every day on GoFundMe,” says Little’s statement to Yahoo Parenting.

With the GoFundMe donation and funds from friends, family, and strangers, Jacob’s campaign has netted more than $18,000 to date, which the Hinks are incredibly grateful for.

The donations help free up the Hinks so they can devote themselves to helping Jacob stay strong. “The idea behind the dialysis is that it’ll give his kidneys time to repair themselves, so they can work on their own soon,” says Christina.

“Clinically, it’s too early to tell what will happen, but I have absolute faith in Jacob,” she says. “The bond between a parent and child is incredibly strong, and my husband and I keep asking him to fight harder, to keep going. I have no doubt that he’ll survive.”

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