As questions continue to surround the death of 14-year-old Miller Gardner, a Costa Rican doctor has helped shed some light on the case.
Dr. Maikel Vargas-Sanabria, a forensic pathologist and professor at the University of Costa Rica, exclusively told Us Weekly why authorities could have initially believed Gardner — the son of former New York Yankees star Brett Gardner — died of food poisoning after focus shifted on Monday, March 31, to high levels of carbon monoxide that were found in his hotel room.
“It would have to be a fulminant type of food poisoning, like an anaphylactic reaction,” Vargas-Sanabria told Us on Monday.. “That’s when someone has a known allergy to a substance — for example, some people are allergic to peanuts, or to certain components, such as when they’re injected with an antibiotic like penicillin. In a matter of minutes, the person suffers a collapse — an anaphylactic shock. Shock means cardiovascular collapse, and within minutes the person dies because of difficulty breathing, among other things.”
Vargas-Sanabria added, “In carbon monoxide poisoning, there are also symptoms within minutes that can cause death. So, for these two conditions to be confused, the food poisoning would have to be an anaphylactic-type reaction — in other words, fulminant — involving something the person is highly allergic to, like peanuts or other allergens.”
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Miller was found dead on March 21 in his hotel room at the Arenas Del Mar & Rainforest Resort in the Costa Rica tourist region of Manuel Antonio while vacationing with his family.
His initial cause of death was ruled to be asphyxia “after a possible intoxication after apparently ingesting some food” by Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigative Agency (OIJ), however asphyxia was later ruled out.
After speculation that Miller could have died of food poisoning — which was a theory floated to CNN by a representative from the OIJ on March 26 — Randall Zúñiga, General Director of the OIJ, said on Monday, March 31, via a virtual communication that Miller “may have died from inhaling” carbon monoxide.
“Regular food poisoning is when someone eats something spoiled,” Vargas-Sanabria further explained. “That causes a different kind of toxic syndrome where they may experience diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain — or in more severe cases, uncontrollable vomiting and dehydration — but that couldn’t realistically be confused with carbon monoxide poisoning.”
Vargas-Sanabria described the process of carbon monoxide poisoning as “chemical asphyxiation.”
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“Hemoglobin in the blood usually carries oxygen that we breathe, and it transports that oxygen to every cell in the body,” the doctor detailed. “But carbon monoxide binds to hemoglobin over a thousand times more strongly than oxygen does. So it blocks the hemoglobin, attaching tightly to it, and no matter how much oxygen is present in the environment or in the lungs, the body can’t absorb it into the bloodstream. As a result, oxygen doesn’t reach the cells — and the cells that are most affected first are the brain neurons and heart cells.”
Within minutes, Vargas-Sanabria explained, an individual experiencing carbon monoxide poisoning “becomes drowsy, then has seizures.”
“That’s because brain cells, which need oxygen, can’t survive more than five minutes without it — they begin to die and cause convulsions,” he continued. “The person also turns reddish in color, which is unlike typical asphyxiation, where someone turns blue.”
Miller’s autopsy and toxicology results, which will reveal an official cause of death, are not expected for months.
With reporting by Alejandra Araya Rojas
