For the first time, a former U.S. state funeral directors association president publicly acknowledges the white fibrous clots: “They’ve been the size of the arteries.”

by Nicolas Hulscher, MPH

Since 2021, reports of unusual white fibrous clots discovered during embalming have been dismissed as anecdotal or attributed to fringe voices within the profession. That dismissal is no longer credible. The phenomenon is now being confirmed by senior leadership across multiple funeral director and embalmer associations—individuals with decades of experience and responsibility for representing thousands of professionals.

In a recent 10-minute interview on OAN (watch full interview here), 2024-2025 President of the Pennsylvania Funeral Directors Association, Chris Calvey Jr., reported that he has personally observed these white fibrous clots in an astonishing 30% to 40% of the bodies he has embalmed over the past five years.

He described the clots as being “the size of the arteries” and emphasized that “you can’t ignore this.” Critically, he stated that these are “foreign bodies” unlike anything he had encountered in his 10 years as a funeral director and embalmer.

This is not an isolated account. Just weeks earlier, Iowa Funeral Directors Association Board Member Dana Goodell independently reported observing the same type of unusual clotting—specifically noting that it began appearing around 2021.

Importantly, this phenomenon has now been acknowledged at the state association level. In June 2025, during the Tennessee Funeral Directors Association (TFDA) Convention, former USAF Major Thomas F. Haviland presented findings from an in-person survey conducted among 28 embalmers and funeral directors.

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