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On Jan. 15, 2023, Twitter person @healthbyjames tweeted a video with the caption, “Clair Bridges, 21, was fully vaccinated for COVID-19, caught COVID anyway, vaccine was supposed to prevent severe disease, however, Clair had both legs amputated, myocarditis, and kidney failure anyway.”

According to Claire Bridges, whom we interviewed for this story, the implication on this tweet about her vaccination standing was deceptive. In reality, the tweet was so inaccurate that even Bridges’ first title was twice spelled incorrectly.

The person who issued the tweet, @healthbyjames, confirmed the show title of “James Cintolo, RN FN CPT.”

The account featured a blue checkmark that was solely showing as a result of the person had subscribed to Twitter Blue for $8 per thirty days. In different phrases, the account had not obtained a blue checkmark from Twitter for being noteworthy or a legacy verified account.

 Anyone can obtain this blue checkmark for $8 per thirty days.

Reporting from AFP that detailed one other purportedly inaccurate tweet from Cintolo recognized him as “a Boston-based nurse who writes about supposed adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination.”

Despite the deceptive nature of Cintolo’s tweet, the video hooked up to the message confirmed a depend of almost 600,000 views, displaying simply how many individuals could have seen the submit. The tweet additionally obtained greater than 7,000 retweets and 10,000 likes. The video initially got here from Bridges’ Instagram account and was reposted to Twitter with out her permission.

Bridges Corrects the Record

We reached out to Bridges to search out the reality about her story. According to native reporting, she is a resident of St. Petersburg, Florida.

A submit on her Instagram account mentioned she was hospitalized on Jan. 16, 2022. On the identical evening, she mentioned she flatlined thrice.

We first requested about her vaccination standing and appeared to search out out details about her COVID journey. By electronic mail, Bridges identified one thing crucial that Cintolo didn’t embody in his deceptive tweet: She was born with a coronary heart situation.

Here’s what she informed us:

I used to be vaccinated 7 months prior. The cause why my bout with COVID was so extreme is tied to the actual fact that I’ve a congenital coronary heart situation.

When I obtained COVID, a complication that arose from COVID was Rhabdomyolysis. Rhabdo assaults your muscular tissues, the guts being a muscle and mine being so weak (it was already unable to effectively pump blood the place it wanted to go). When the Rhabdo saved progressing, my well being saved falling. Less oxygenated blood the place it must be, extreme dehydration, on prime of all the opposite signs one offers with after they’re sick from COVID. My legs started to go necrotic and in an effort to forestall sepsis they needed to amputate. My legs had been amputated on account of COVID/Rhabdo, not the vaccine.

For anybody who does not have any of the details to say something totally different than that, is extraordinarily impolite, dangerous and disrespectful.

In regards to his declare that I had myocarditis and kidney failure, I did. However, it wasn’t simply my kidneys that failed, it was all the things. I flatlined thrice. On Jan. 16, 2022, I used to be put on life help, together with 24-hour dialysis.

Bridges: Cintolo’s Tweet Was ‘Incorrect’ and ‘Harmful’

In our second query, we requested particularly about Cintolo’s deceptive tweet.

In her reply, Bridges highlighted the damaging nature that the tweet had on her across the one-year anniversary of the date she mentioned she had flatlined. That one-year anniversary occurred on Jan. 16, 2023.

Bridges started by referencing Cintolo:

That Twitter account didn’t have permission to make use of my story. He additionally misspelled my title and omitted key data so he might twist my story to push his private agenda. His submit has brought about individuals to begin up on my Instagram with hateful and impolite messages to me. He utterly ignored the truth that I’m a human, what my family members and I went by was traumatic, and he went forward to incorrectly and harmfully inform my story. A day or so earlier than my loss of life/alive day too, so it was simply pretty receiving these horrible feedback a day after my one-year anniversary of flatlining.

A Special Thanks to Caregivers

Our final query to Bridges was to search out out if she’d like to increase thanks for many who cared for her throughout her remedy and restoration. She talked about a superb variety of caregivers, a lot of which had been featured on her Instagram account:

Yes! I do not factor anybody’s ever requested me this so thanks. There are actually so many locations and folks that helped me however all my care givers, medical doctors, surgeons, and nurses at Tampa General Hospital and Mount Sinai Hospital. Steve Chamberlain’s 50 legs Org., Prosthetic and Orthotic Associates of Orlando, Grassroots Kava House and Vertical Ventures (they’re my kava and climbing neighborhood who held fundraisers and had my again your complete time), and clearly my household & mates who took care of me bodily & mentally.

A GoFundMe was created for Bridges. As of Jan. 23, $137,687 had already been raised of a $150,000 objective.

This story shall be up to date if we uncover any additional particulars.

Sources:

AFP Canada. “Ex-Hockey Star Gino Odjick Died Due to Terminal Disease.” AFP Fact Check, 19 Jan. 2023,

Bridges, Claire. Instagram,

Schecker, Justin. “COVID Survivor, Amputee Claire Bridges Receives Prosthetic Legs.” WFLA, 15 June 2022,