Bode Miller has revealed that his three-year-old son, Asher, was hospitalised for carbon monoxide poisoning.
The US Olympic alpine skier - who shares sons Nash, eight, Easton, four, twin sons Asher and Askiel, three, and daughter Scarlet Olivia, 19 months, with wife Morgan Miller - shared in a since-deleted Instagram post on 27 July that the incident came after a construction crane was parked in the driveway of their home.
“Earlier this week we had a crane parked in our driveway for a few hours. Despite keeping the kids inside for obvious safety reasons, the little ones got really sick from it,” he captioned the deleted post, according to People.
“Asher ended up in the hospital with carbon monoxide poisoning,” Miller said. “All are well now, but passing along as a reminder to all parents of the dangers of carbon monoxide. Reminder to go test your CO detectors.”
While Miller’s post has since been deleted, his wife Morgan shared her own Instagram post about the incident on 28 July. “Receiving a lot of messages so addressing it here,” she captioned her video, which showed her three youngest children wearing oxygen masks in the hospital.
“Two weeks ago, we had a crane at our house to remove our broken hot tub. Asher, Aksel and Scarlet innocently stood on the front step of our house to watch the action which resulted in them getting carbon monoxide poisoning due to the lack of airflow in our driveway landing them in the ER,” Morgan revealed. “They were on high flow oxygen for over four hours. It was a terrifying experience but thanking my lucky stars they are okay.”
When asked by an Instagram follower how she recognised the signs of carbon monoxide poisoning, Morgan explained that Asher “was complaining of an upset stomach” and he appeared as “white as a ghost”.
Asher then began to pass out, which prompted her to rush the toddler to the emergency room. While his tests came back normal, Morgan instructed her nanny to check if her other children were having any symptoms of poisoning. The nanny informed her that Aksel started to have the same symptoms as his twin brother.
“I notified the nurse and she said if there’s ever more than one with the same symptoms then they check for carbon monoxide poisoning and sure enough that’s what it was,” Morgan said. “They had us clear the house and bring everyone down to get tested and they sent the fire department up to check our home.”
In a separate comment, the professional beach volleyball player revealed that the family has carbon monoxide detectors in their house, but none of them went off.
Carbon monoxide poisoning occurs when too much carbon monoxide is in the air, causing the body to replace oxygen in red blood cells with carbon monoxide. According to the Mayo Clinic, some of the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning include headache, weakness, dizziness, nausea or vomiting, shortness of breath, blurred vision, drowsiness, loss of muscle control and loss of consciousness.
The recent health scare comes after their son Asher was rushed to the hospital following a febrile seizure in December – a convulsion in a child that’s caused by a fever.
“Yesterday, Asher had a febrile seizure which scared us half to death. We took that same ambulance to the same hospital we took Emmy to but this time we got to leave with our child,” Morgan wrote in an Instagram Story at the time, alongside a photo of her husband lying down on a hospital bed with Asher asleep on his chest. Their daughter, Emmy, died in an accidental drowning incident in 2018 when she was 19 months old.
In a separate Story, Morgan also shared a picture of the pro skier cuddling with his twin sons on the couch after they had brought Asher home from the hospital.
“He’s home and back to his normal self,” she said. “I am reminded to slow down and realise life’s little gifts during this crazy holiday season because we already have everything we need… our loved ones, our health, and more time”.
“Because time with the ones we love is all we could ever ask for,” she wrote over the final photo, which showed Miller looking affectionately at his three-year-old son. He is also father to daughter Dace, 14, and son Nate, 10, from previous relationships.
In June 2018, their daughter Emeline died in a drowning accident at 19 months old. The child was found unconscious at a neighbour’s swimming pool in southern California. Miller, who has won six Olympic medals in alpine ski racing, shared at the time that he and his family were “beyond devastated”.
“We are beyond devastated. Our baby girl, Emmy, passed away yesterday. Never in a million years did we think we would experience a pain like this,” he shared in an Instagram post, which featured a picture of his daughter. “Her love, her light, her spirit will never be forgotten. Our little girl loved life and lived it to its fullest every day. Our family respectfully requests privacy during this painful time.”
