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Editor’s note, Dec. 14: The Knoxville New Sentinel, which originally published a column on Dec. 11 about a man who played Santa claiming that a child died in his arms at a hospital, has backed away from the story. After the column went viral, the newspaper attempted to verify the man’s account as relayed to its columnist, but was unable to do so. The newspaper on Dec. 14 published a statement that concluded: “The News Sentinel cannot establish that Schmitt-Matzen’s account is inaccurate, but more importantly, ongoing reporting cannot establish that it is accurate. Therefore, because the story does not meet the newspaper’s standards of verification, we are no longer standing by the veracity of Schmitt-Matzen’s account.”

Original story, published Dec. 12:

Santa Claus hears many requests during the holiday season, but one 5-year-old boy’s final wish brought this Santa to tears in Tennessee recently, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.

Eric Schmitt-Matzen, 60, has played Santa for many years, working dozens of gigs each year. In addition to looking every bit the part with his 6-foot, 310 pounds frame and long, snowy beard, he was even born on Dec. 6 (Saint Nicholas Day), the newspaper reported Sunday.

Columnist Sam Venable wrote in the paper about Schmitt-Matzen’s story.

Several weeks ago, Schmitt-Matzen received a call from a nurse, he told Venable. She asked him to come to a local hospital because there was a sick little boy who wanted to see Santa.

Schmitt-Matzen arrived at the hospital in 15 minutes. The little boy’s mother gave Schmitt-Matzen a Paw Patrol toy to hand to her son.

“When I walked in, he was laying there, so weak it looked like he was ready to fall asleep. I sat down on his bed and asked, ‘Say, what’s this I hear about you’re gonna miss Christmas? There’s no way you can miss Christmas! Why, you’re my Number One elf!” Schmitt-Matzen told the boy, according to the paper.

Schmitt-Matzen said the boy was so weak he could barely open the gift.

The boy asked Santa, “They say I’m going to die. How can I tell when I get to where I’m going?”

Schmitt-Matzen told the boy, “When you get there, you tell ’em you’re Santa’s Number One elf, and I know they’ll let you in.”

The boy then sat up, and asked one more question: “Santa, can you help me?”

But before Schmitt-Matzen could answer, the boy died in his arms.

“I spent four years in the Army with the 75th Rangers, and I’ve seen my share of (stuff). But I ran by the nurses’ station bawling my head off. I know nurses and doctors see things like that every day, but I don’t know how they can take it,” he told USA Today.

“I cried all the way home,” Schmitt-Matzen said. “I was crying so hard, I had a tough time seeing good enough to drive. My wife and I were scheduled to visit our grandchildren in Nashville the next day, but I told her to go by herself. I was a basket case for three days. It took me a week or two to stop thinking about it all the time.”

For a while, Schmitt-Matzen wasn’t sure if he could play Santa again, but he decided to work one more show and said it “made me realize the role I have to play. For them and for me.”

Venable, meanwhile, told CNN that he knew the story was sad, but he didn’t realize how it would resonate.

“I’ve gotten a big response to this,” Venable told CNN. “People have told me that they were crying when they read it, and I tell them that I was crying when I wrote it.”

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