Free Heart Surgery for Children – Facebook Share

Outline

Message circulating on Facebook claims that free of cost heart surgery for children is available at a Bangalore hospital and that users should share the post to help spread the word.  

Brief Analysis

Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, the medical facility mentioned in the message, does offer totally free medical care for both adults and children for not just heart surgery but other medical specialties as well. The free medical care offered at the Institute is in no way reliant on how many times the Facebook message is shared. The photograph of a hospitalized child that comes with the message was taken from an article published in 2008 and has no connection whatsoever to the Sri Sathya Sai Institute.

Example

Detailed Analysis

This message, which is circulating rapidly around Facebook, claims that children can receive free of cost heart surgery at a facility in Bangalore, India.

Although it does not specifically name the facility offering the free treatment, the message does include a phone number for it. The message urges users to share the post in the hope that the information might save lives. The message also includes a photograph of a young child in a hospital bed.  

The hospital referenced in the message does exist and it does indeed offer free medical care. The phone  number listed in the message  belongs to the Whitefield, Bangalore branch of the  Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences. The Bangalore based hospital is one of several operated by the  Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust. The hospitals offer “world-class healthcare to all totally free of charge”. This free medical care is available to both children and adults and covers many kinds of treatment including heart surgery.

The treatment is free to all and, of course, is in no way reliant on how many times the Facebook message is shared. The wording of the message ( I NEED AT LEAST 100 SHARES) has been misinterpreted by some as suggesting that the free surgery is only available to sick children if the information is shared a specific number of times. This is, of course, nonsense.

Moreover, the photograph of the hospitalized child that accompanies later versions of the message has no connection whatsoever to Sathya Sai Institute. In fact, the photograph was  taken from an article  published on the Chernobyl Children’s Project International (CCPI) website in September 2008. The child in the photograph is one of  fifteen children treated  by a volunteer surgical team during a cardiac surgery mission to Ukraine in August 2008.

Story Research by Steve Williamson and Brett Christensen

Original Source : https://www.hoax-slayer.net/free-heart-surgery-for-children-facebook-share/