A hospitals trust has apologised after some “unfortunate” furniture placement led to a crude image being displayed on the walls of one of its hospitals.

X user @meni_san posted the picture on Thursday, February 29, which showed a design on the wall at the newborn unit of Burnley General Hospital made from butterflies.

The placement of furniture around the picture, though, led to the design unfortunately resembling a penis, which East Lancashire Hospitals Trust (ELHT) have apologised for and said was “never the intention.”

 

The post went viral and racked up more than a million views on the social media site, formerly known as Twitter, as well as more than 30,000 likes.

Despite the resemblance, ELHT said the positioning of some furniture is obscuring other parts of the artwork.

Lancashire Telegraph: The artworkThe artwork (Image: X / @Meni_San)

A spokesperson for the Trust said: “This artwork was installed by the brilliant team at Lancashire Women’s and Newborn Centre at Burnley General Hospital and, whilst it’s unfortunate that the furniture in the photo has obscured some of it and is making it look quite different, it doesn’t detract from the amazing care colleagues provide to thousands of parents and their babies across East Lancashire every year.

“We’re sorry if anyone has been offended, which was never the intention.”

Another X user pointed out it wasn't the first time that artwork in the birthing centre at Burnley had inadvertently been in a phallic shape.

Olivia shared an image from 2020 which showed two dandelions with seeds shaped like hearts, with some blowing away, however this also appeared to show a penis. 

In response to the initial tweet going viral, the user Meni San encouraged people to donate to East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust's official charity, ELHT&Me; often on X when users' tweets go viral they may plug their businesses, but he opted for charity.

User Colin Bradshaw replied with his own photo from 2019, "confirming this is real", while another user, Ellie, said when she saw it in 2019 she "thought she was hallucinating from contractions".