Brett Gardner's entire family was sickened on night when son died, lawsuit says
A moment of silence is held for Miller Gardner, son of former New York Yankee Brett Gardner, prior to the Opening Day game between the New York Yankees and the Milwaukee Brewers at Yankee Stadium on Thursday, Mar 27, 2025. Credit: Jim McIsaac
TAMPA, Fla. — Former Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner felt as if he were “fighting for his life” and still has medical issues relating to the suspected carbon monoxide poisoning that led to the death of his 14-year-old son, Miller, last March at a Costa Rican resort, according to an explosive lawsuit filed by the family on Friday.
Miller Gardner died on March 21, 2025, during a family vacation at the Arenas Del Mar Beachfront & Rainforest Resort.
In April, after initially suspecting asphyxiation following a bout of food poisoning, Costa Rican officials determined Miller Gardner’s cause of death was carbon monoxide poisoning.
The lawsuit, which was filed in Pennsylvania federal court by the firm of Motley Rice LLC against the owners and operators of the resort, was obtained by Newsday. In it, the Gardners allege that the death and illnesses took place because the family stayed in a pair of rooms near a mechanical control room that was the source of the fatal levels of carbon monoxide.
The lawsuit claims that the resort owners knew there was a problem based on previous guests reporting issues with the same guest rooms.
The lawsuit also claims that the Gardners’ then-16-year-old son, Hunter — who was staying in the same room as his brother — was in danger of suffering the same fate.
Hunter woke up at some point during the night with symptoms of paralysis, the lawsuit states, but “was able to crawl across the floor and open the terrace door. With the fresh air, [he] began to have some slow improvement in his symptoms but remained very weak.”
Gardner, his wife, Jessica, and Hunter continued to suffer symptoms consistent with carbon monoxide poisoning after their return to their South Carolina home following the incident, the lawsuit alleges, with Hunter spending the night of March 23 in the hospital there for evaluation.
Brett Gardner, who spent his entire 14-year career with the Yankees from 2008-21, was a speedy outfielder, but the lawsuit alleges that the now-42-year-old “continues to experience numbness and paresthesia, and heaviness in his leg.”
The National Cancer Institute defines paresthesia as “an abnormal touch sensation, such as burning or prickling, that occurs without an outside stimulus.”
“The Defendants,” the lawsuit states, “are jointly and severally responsible for Plaintiffs’ injuries because they failed to comply with basic safety standards. A mechanical control room adjacent to Plaintiffs’ rooms emitted dangerous levels of carbon monoxide because Defendants made inappropriate modifications to the hotel floor plan, placed a water heater in a dangerous location which created excess carbon monoxide, failed to maintain proper ventilation of the Mechanical Room and instead permitted the noxious fumes to enter Plaintiffs’ hotel rooms causing their injuries and the death of [Miller]. Most alarmingly, other guests of the hotel suffered similar injuries when staying in the same guest rooms. Even after learning of these dangerous conditions, Defendants failed to remedy these dangerous conditions, thereby unnecessarily causing the death of [Miller] and Plaintiffs’ injuries.”
The lawsuit includes dramatic and heartbreaking details surrounding the incident, which took place after the family returned from a dinner out.
“At some point during the night of March 20, 2025,” the lawsuit states, “with a specific time unknowable, Plaintiffs Brett, Jessica and [Hunter] each woke up experiencing similar illnesses.
“Jessica Gardner woke up on the floor of the bathroom with no memory of how she got from the bed to the bathroom. At some point she hit her head and cut her forehead. She was freezing cold, nauseous and very weak. She experienced disorientation and hallucinations.
“Brett Gardner woke up violently ill. He describes feeling as if he ‘were fighting for his life’ and in ‘pure survival mode’. It was unlike anything he had previously experienced. Mr. Gardner experienced multiple episodes of vomiting. He also felt as though he were unable to use his arms or legs.
“[Hunter] also woke up violently ill surrounded by vomit. He also experienced similar feelings of paralysis.”
Miller was pronounced dead on the morning of March 21 after the brothers did not respond to text messages from their mother and she went to check on them.
“Mrs. Gardner found [Hunter] sitting wrapped in only a towel on the couch in the room,” the lawsuit states. “[Miller] remained face down in his bed.”
The lawsuit alleges that after the incident, the resort placed carbon monoxide detectors in all the guest rooms and upgraded the water heating system.
The lawsuit was filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania because the resort owners, David Callan and R. Scott Williams, are two Pennsylvania-based executives who own a venture capital firm there. A message seeking comment from the defendants was not immediately returned.
The Gardners are seeking unspecified damages for what the lawsuit claims was “gross negligence, wrongful death, emotional distress, vicarious liability, breach of warranty, loss of filial consortium and other causes of action.”
The Yankees held a moment of silence for Miller last year on Opening Day.
Anthony Rieber covers sports media and business and professional sports (you know, games and trades and things). He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since Jan. 1, 2026.
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