Messages spread virally claiming boy on hospital floor was staged. Fact Check

Rumours spreading online claim that a photo of an ill boy on a hospital floor at Leeds General Infirmary in the UK was staged for political purposes.

UNPROVEN

During the latter stages of the UK’s 2019 General Election, a photo of a boy identified as four year old Jack Willment-Barr asleep on the floor of a hospital in Leeds began spreading virally, and was used in many political spheres to demonstrate how stretched and underfunded the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) has become. Attention to the photo surged after Prime Minister Boris Johnson initially refused to look at the photo after a reporter presented it to him during an interview.

Subsequent to that, rumours began to spread claiming the photo was actually staged. Many such assertions claim the photo was staged by the UK’s Labour party or people working on their behalf.

One popular message appears to have kick-started this rumour, and claims that the boy was placed on the floor of the hospital by his mother, as per the viral message spreading below.

Very interesting. A good friend of mine is a senior nursing sister at Leeds Hospital – the boy shown on the floor by the media was in fact put there by his mother who then took photos on her mobile phone and uploaded it to media outlets before he climbed back onto his trolley. He was on a hospital trolley in the paediatric A&E having been seen within 20 minutes. I am a nurse myself and am so pissed off with fake news, yes the NHS is a mess mainly caused by people misusing it and lack of elderly care. Think of the nurses and Doctors who are doing their jobs instead of constantly slagging them off. another Momentum
Propaganda story. Disgraceful

However this message has been simply copied and pasted across the Internet and its original author is currently unknown. One of the most popular and earliest (possibly first) instances of this message was attributed to a woman who has since distanced herself from the post. In an interview with The Guardian, she claimed her Facebook account was compromised and she did not in fact post the message. The Guardian reported that the woman – who has received death threats and wishes to remain anonymous – is “not a nurse” and “doesn’t know anyone in Leeds”.

I was hacked. I am not a nurse and I certainly don’t know anyone in Leeds.

The woman subsequently clarified to other media outlets, including the BBC, that she received an unexpected friend request, accepted it (we don’t recommend this!) and scrolled through the posts before seeing the above message claiming the photo was staged, which she then copied and pasted to her account before it suddenly went viral.

She has since deleted the post and her account is not visible at the time of writing.

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Further to this, the Chief Medical Officer at Leeds General Infirmary appears to have already acknowledged that the photo was not staged in a statement –

We are extremely sorry that there were only chairs available in the treatment room, and no bed. This falls below our usual high standards, and for this we would like to sincerely apologise to Jack and his family.

Other rumours and messages on social media that purport the photo was staged lack any evidence supporting their claims. Since the original message above appears to have derived from a compromised Facebook account and the hospital in question has already acknowledged that there were no beds available, there is currently little reason to believe this photo was staged, and as such we rank the claim unproven.