Family of Baby Jacob in Battle With Life Insurance Company Following Preemie's Death

The past couple months have been a struggle in many ways for the family of Baby Jacob -- a baby born 13 weeks premature in June and who died in August.

Jacob was born at 27 weeks and weighed just 1.5 pounds. A friend of the parents, Jeff and Christina Hinks, set up a GoFundMe page to help the family deal with medical and household bills following Jacob’s birth. But shortly after the page went up, GoFundMe deemed a photo of the premature baby “too graphic for viewers” and would not allow the page to be available to the public, NBC Chicago reports.

Following a national backlash, GoFundMe changed its tune and ended up giving the new parents a $10,000 donation.

Since then, Baby Jacob has passed away and the the family is facing new struggles. Christina, a longtime volunteer in the Yorkville area who moved to McHenry in 2013 after marrying Jeff, recently learned they would not receive the full amount they thought was entitled to them from their life insurance policy, the Aurora Beacon News reports.

Christina told the Aurora Beacon News they added Jacob to their Sun Life Financial insurance policy and was told he was added but never received a policy. She said a letter she received from the insurance company with a check for $1,000 read that Jacobs was covered for $20,000 but since he did not reach six months of age, he was only entitled to $1,000, according to the article.

The family thinks this is unfair and is now fighting with Sun Life to receive the full amount they believe they are entitled.

“...regardless of what the policy said, we never got a chance to read it,” Christina told the Aurora Beacon News.

Christina, and several other people, have taken to the Sun Life Insurance Facebook page to bash the company, referring to the way they handled the HInks’ claim as “disgusting.”

For those who would like to help this suburban family, you can make a donation on their GoFundMe page. So far, over $30,000 has been raised.

Subscribe to Patch Alerts and Our Daily Email Newsletter