A Knoxville publication that ran a story on a five-year-old boy dying in the arms of Santa Claus, which became viral, is now being questioned by the newspaper itself. The incident comes at a time that social media sites are being more wary of the proliferation of fake new in the aftermath of the recent U.S. presidential election.
In an editor’s note published on Wednesday in Knoxville News Sentinel, the daily said that since it published the story, it tried to independently verify the account of Santa Claus lookalike Eric Schmitt-Matzen that he responded to the call of a nurse he knows. The nurse said a very ill boy wanted to see Santa.
Schmitt-Mattzen went to the hospital 15 minutes after the call and gave the sick boy a PAW Patrol toy. Before he entered the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, he told the staff not to go in ICU if they will cry because he too would break down and fail to cheer the sick child.
He recounted that the boy was so ill he had a difficult time opening the gift. They had a short conversation about dying and the child being Santa’s Number One elf then the boy asked for his help. Schmitt-Matzen wrapped his arms around the boy who died on his arms. The mother and the ICU staff ran inside when they realized the child had died. The incident made him rethink his Santa Claus gig, although he said he would do it one more time before hanging his Santa suit.
The editor’s note said it cannot establish how accurate Schmitt-Matzen’s account of the incident is. However, Sam Venable, the Sentinel columnist who wrote the article, said he has no reason to believe that Schmitt-Mattzen faked the story, New York Post reported.
Venable later admitted he has some questions because of apparent gaps in the story. The News Sentinel called more than 20 hospitals in Tennessee to check if the incident took place in their facility but all said they have no record of the incident. Schmitt-Matzen declines to identify the hospital or provide more details except to say it happened around six weeks ago. But he explained his not giving details to protect the privacy of the distraught family.