Fact Check: High School Athlete Did NOT Get COVID-19 Vaccine Before 6-Foot-Long Clot In His Leg

Fact Check

  • by: Alexis Tereszcuk
Fact Check: High School Athlete Did NOT Get COVID-19 Vaccine Before 6-Foot-Long Clot In His Leg Not Vaxxed

Did Ohio high school football player Kaden Clymer get the COVID-19 vaccine before he was found with a 6-foot-long clot in his leg? No, this claim lacks context. A local TV station covering the story later reported that Clymer had been diagnosed with IVC atresia, a vascular anomaly. "Kaden was never vaccinated before the blood clots were found," his sister, McKayla Clymer, told Lead Stories. The athlete's father, Byron Clymer, posted a message on social media that his son did not get the clot from "Covid or vaccine (not vaccinated)." The clot, he claimed, was a "birth defect that was just discovered."

In a September 7, 2022 article, Gateway Pundit cited a September 3, 2022 report from Toledo, Ohio CBS affiliate station WTOL about Clymer's malady. The Gateway Pundit article was entitled "High School Athlete Found with 6 Foot Long Clot In His Leg - Ending His Football Career -- Doctors Baffled on Exactly What Happened?" (archived here). The article opened:

A high school athlete was forced to end his football career after doctors removed SIX FOOT LONG blood clots from his legs. According to the report, "Doctors are still trying to figure out exactly what happened to Kaden." Watch the video below: High School Athlete Has Six Feet of Blood Clots Removed From Legs Abruptly...

Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:

High School Athlete Found with 6 Foot Long Clot In His Leg - Ending His Football Career -- Doctors Baffled on Exactly What Happened?

A high school athlete was forced to end his football career after doctors removed SIX FOOT LONG blood clots from his legs. According to the report, "Doctors are still trying to figure out exactly what happened to Kaden." Watch the video below: High School Athlete Has Six Feet of Blood Clots Removed From Legs Abruptly...

While the article does not directly blame a COVID-19 vaccine for Kaden's blood clot, it implies that such a vaccine could have affected the high school athlete. From the article:

The Gateway Pundit previously reported that embalmers are finding long, rubbery clots inside of corpses since the implementation of Covid vaccines.

According to one Alabama embalmer who has been treating corpses for over 20 year, the strange fibrous clots emerged in May of 2021, shortly after the Covid vaccines first became available to the public.

The Gateway Pundit published the story at 12:00 p.m. on September 7, 2022. According to the Wayback Machine, WTOL updated its own story, "'It could've been so much worse' | Wauseon football player's career abruptly ends," on September 7, 2022 at 12:50 p.m. ET with details about Kaden's diagnosis:

Doctors diagnosed Clymer with a condition called IVC Atresia but are still undergoing tests to determine the cause and treatment moving forward. His path to recovery is far from over, re-gaining strength into his legs each day comes at a price.

"We believe Kaden was born without his IVC vein which caused his bloodclots. But doctors are still running test on that currently," McKayla Clymer told Lead Stories via direct messages on Twitter on September 15, 2022.

WTOL posted the story about Kaden Clymer on its Facebook page on September 3, 2022 at 6:15 p.m. ET. A few users speculated about whether Clymer had been vaccinated; presumably, against COVID-19. Clymer's sister, McKayla, confirmed that her father posted a message on the WTOL Facebook page about her brother.

In that message, Byron Clymer wrote:

Screen Shot 2022-09-09 at 12.24.09 PM.png

(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Fri Sept 9 18:50:43 2022 UTC)

The comment was posted on September 4, 2022, three days before Gateway Pundit posted its own story about the blood clot.

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Lead Stories is working with the CoronaVirusFacts/DatosCoronaVirus Alliance, a coalition of more than 100 fact-checkers who are fighting misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn more about the alliance here.


  Alexis Tereszcuk

Alexis Tereszcuk is a writer and fact checker at Lead Stories and an award-winning journalist who spent over a decade breaking hard news and celebrity scoop with RadarOnline and Us Weekly.

As the Entertainment Editor, she investigated Hollywood stories and conducted interviews with A-list celebrities and reality stars.  

Alexis’ crime reporting earned her spots as a contributor on the Nancy Grace show, CNN, Fox News and Entertainment Tonight, among others.

Read more about or contact Alexis Tereszcuk

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