Did a baby named Kyle survive heart surgery only to now suffer from COVID-19, as depicted in a social media post? No, that's not true: A photo purportedly showing the newborn was published in 2014, long before the novel coronavirus pandemic, and the infant's name is Cameron. The child is now almost 8 years old and his family is very upset the photo is being used fraudulently.
The purloined photo appeared in a post (archived here) where it was published on Facebook on May 16, 2020, under the title "Prayers for Baby Kyle who now has Covid-19." It read:
This is baby Kyle. Few weeks ago He survived an opened heart surgery, And today the doctors confirm That he has Corona Virus, He is not asking for your money, He only want you to help him out, by sharing this post to even if it's 5 different Facebook group
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
This is the shameless abuse of a family's baby photo, posted now to get 'Likes' on Facebook and possibly even to collect donations purportedly for the infant. The page's sponsor, who goes by "The Role of the Holy Spirit," is not related to the child and, according to Facebook's transparency research, the people who manage this page live in Ghana.
The real name of the infant in the photo is Cameron, and he is an active, healthy boy living in New Zealand with his family. See the real child, post-surgery and 16 months old on his mother's page posted on Jan. 14, 2014. The mom, Rachael, told Lead Stories on May 19, 2020, "We are gutted that our precious son has been exploited like this."
The photo originally appeared in a 2014 article by Rachael in New Zealand about the family's life-or-death ordeal that began with a diagnosis during pregnancy of major heart issues in the developing fetus. Infant Cameron's first open-heart surgery was at 5 days old, and the photo that is now being passed off as "Kyle" was taken two days later, in 2014.
"We are mortified to think people can exploit children's photos like this, especially little kids who have been through such a horrendous journey just to have a chance to live," Rachael told Lead Stories. "Cameron, who will turn 8 this year, has had four heart surgeries. One of the groups that used Cameron's photo was called Prayer Request Chapel and from there it's just been shared hundreds of times to who knows where.
"I want people to know that photo is my son, he's not named Kyle, and he doesn't have Covid-19."
