A shot of a father and his sick little boy is going viral, because it so perfectly captures the pair bonding. But since photographer Heather Whitten initially shared it on Facebook, it's been removed from the site three times. Whitten, the photo of her husband and son, explained in her post that her toddler had been diagnosed with Salmonella poisoning and her husband Thomas had to sit in the shower with him to calm down the recurring fever.
"I woke up, and it had been removed, by Facebook, without warning or alerting me to the action at all," Whitten told Cosmopolitan.com. "Not sure if or when it will be back up on my page. This is the third time it has been removed, and it was reinstated within half a day, each time."
Although seeing her toddler suffer was obviously stressful, Whitten also saw it as a beautiful moment between dad and son. "Just seeing Thomas shine as a father is always powerful to me," Whitten told POPSUGAR. ""I realized how 'taboo' it was to a lot of people that I would even take a picture of that moment, much less share it with anyone. But, that only makes me feel prouder. [It] shows how comfortable and proud we are of the way that we live with our kids."
The image is reminiscent of another of a mom and her baby in the bathtub that went viral last month. The photographer behind that shot, Kelli Bannister, has shown support for Whitten, writing on Facebook, "I see nothing but a powerful image filled with love, care & tenderness captured of a Father doing what he can to help ease his sons pain, and it's magical!"
Before it was taken down the most recent time, Whitten's post had racked up more than 31,000 shares.
Update 5/17, 11:55 a.m.: A Facebook spokesperson has told Beta Male via email that they should have never taken Whitten's photo down. "This photo was mistakenly removed by our team and does not violate our Community Standards," a company spokesperson said. "We are sorry for this mistake and have restored the photo to the page."
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