How did Brett Gardner's son die? Yankees OF's child's cause of death officially revealed after investigation
Brett Gardner's son Miller died at 14 years old while on a vacation with the former outfielder's family. He was found in his hotel room the next morning and an investigation ensued, only now revealing the official cause of death.
Randall Zúñiga, the director of the Judicial Investigation Agency that headed up the investigation, said the 14-year-old was tested for carboxyhemoglobin. This is a blood compound that is generated when carbon monoxide binds to a person's blood.
When this compound gets to 50% saturation or higher, that is the lethal level, and Miller's percentage was 64%, cementing the cause of death as carbon monoxide poisoning.
Zúñiga said via ESPN:
"It's important to note that adjacent to this room is a dedicated machine room, where it's believed there may be some type of contamination toward these rooms."
A layer found on the former New York Yankees outfielder's son's organs suggested a poison. The investigation also looked into asphyxiation and food poisoning, ruling both those out early on.
Aaron Judge was thinking about former teammate Brett Gardner amid tragedy
On Opening Day, Aaron Judge had his former teammate on his mind. Brett Gardner, who manned left field until 2021 with Judge in right field from 2017 until then, had lost his son just recently on a family vacation.
He revealed later via People Magazine that there was an overwhelming amount of support for Gardner "because of the way that Brett impacted all of our lives.” The reigning AL MVP said:
“He may not have been the big superstar with all the All-Stars and MVPs and this and that. But this guy was a leader of all of us. A second dad to some guys.”
He added:
“He poured everything into every single guy. If we were having a tough time, he was always there for you to be someone to lean on, someone to joke on. His family, they've all been on my mind."
Aaron Boone, who coached Gardner for the latter few years of his career, added that the Yankees were playing with "heavy hearts" on Opening Day because of Gardner's loss.