- His wife, Morgan, revealed three of their children were hospitalized in July
- The mom said they were in their driveway watching a crane when it happened
- Bode, 45, says he and Morgan, 36, had ‘no idea’ they were in danger
Bode Miller has opened up about the terrifying moment he realized his kids were suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning and rushed them to hospital.
The former Olympic skier reflected on the moment he and his wife, Morgan, 36, discovered three of their young children were unwell after inhaling the odorless, colorless gas – despite being outdoors.
‘I would’ve never thought that carbon monoxide poisoning could be a real danger outside,’ Bode, 45, admitted to DailyMail.com while promoting his appearance in upcoming FOX reality series Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.
‘But it’s a really heavy gas. It sits really low to the ground. My kids were sitting, there was a crane running and there was zero wind.’
The dad added the ‘scary thing’ was that the family has carbon monoxide and smoke detectors throughout their entire house and yet still had no warning about what was happening to the children.
In fact, despite taking what they thought was every available precaution, their three-year-old twins Asher and Aksel, and their 19-month-old daughter Scarlet still got sick.
In July, Bode’s wife Morgan – a former professional beach volleyball player – took to Instagram to share a video of three of their children in the ER wearing oxygen masks, while opening up about how the ‘terrifying’ medical scare unfolded.
‘Two weeks ago, we had a crane at our house to remove our broken hot tub,’ Morgan, 36, began her post, with the clip of Asher, Aksel, and Scarlet in hospital beds as they were tended by medical staff.
‘They were on high flow oxygen for over four hours. It was a terrifying experience but thanking my lucky stars they are okay.’
According to Morgan, the situation was caused by a crane that was parked in their driveway to repair a broken hot tub.
She explained the kids had been standing on the front step of their home to watch the crane – despite Bode stating in a since-deleted Instagram post that they had kept the children inside ‘for obvious safety reasons’ – when the accident happened.
Bode said the incident was amplified by the fact he and Morgan lost their daughter, Emmy, in 2018 after she drowned in their neighbors’ pool at only 19 months old, even though he assured Asher, Aksel, and Scarlet were ‘fine now.’
‘I think after losing a child, you are sort of reattuned to where the risks are,’ he told DailyMail.com.
‘And there are lots of things that are scary as a parent that aren’t actually really that dangerous and that you talk about with your pediatrician or whatever.’
He added: ‘But then there’s a whole host of things that are really dangerous, that aren’t really scary, and you just don’t think of, or you think they’re not ever going to happen to you. And so, after experiencing that, I think we’re pretty dialed in.’
The former athlete said the freak accident wouldn’t have been an issue if there had been ‘even been a whisper of a breeze.’
He called the poisoning ‘another episode of showing you what you don’t know as a parent.’
‘Which is a pretty long list for me,’ the 45-year-old added.
‘I mean, maybe some parents have a better go at it, but there’s just so many scary things you don’t know,’ he continued.
‘And when you are hit with one of those in a real way where you see a kid like our kids, they were passing out, they were turning really, really white.’
Bode described the situation as ‘scary as s**t’ until they figured out what was happening, especially as he and Morgan were standing next to them.
‘But I’m up at six feet and they’re sitting on the ground and it’s just they could die right next to you, and you would never know why or how,’ the dad pointed out.
‘I think [that] was important that we share that because I think I view all parents as in this together. And if you share that s**t, maybe it helps some other person.’
According to Bode, the shape of their driveway and the fact that the crane was there for five hours running with no wind was how the kids became ill despite being outside.
‘It was a series of things that’s very unlikely to happen, but there’s enough people in the world that it’s going to happen again,’ he said. ‘So hopefully try to share it and inform people so that they don’t lose their kids.’
The ‘terrifying’ emergency came just over six months after Morgan and Bode – who also share sons Nash, eight, and Easton, four – experienced another health scare, revealing back in December that Asher had been rushed to the ER after suffering from a seizure.
The toddler was treated in the same hospital the couple’s young daughter Emmy who passed away in after drowning in 2018.
Morgan shared a heartfelt Instagram post at the time along with a picture of Bode lying in the hospital bed with Asher, describing the scary incident and being thankful that although it was the ‘same ambulance to the same hospital’ they took Emmy to, ‘this time we got to leave with our child.’
In 2019, Bode, who also has a daughter named Neesyn Dacey (Dace) and a son Samuel (Nate) with former girlfriends, revealed he and his family would be splitting their time between California and Montana, a year after Emmy’s death.
‘Losing a child makes you reflect. Who do I want my kids to be? How do I want them to interact with the world, and how do I make sure they grow up to be solid humans?’ he wrote on Instagram at the time.
‘To gain grit, resiliency, humility, integrity, character, kindness, honesty. Nature can teach you so many of these things which is why [Morgan] and I decided to expand on the lives we live in Southern California and provide the balance of Big Sky, MT.
‘We are thrilled to be making the move to Big Sky part time and making more of life [Spanish Peaks Mountain Club].’
The couple spoke further about their sea change to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, with Morgan saying she hoped the move to Montana would encourage them to explore and get them away from technology.
‘I would’ve loved to have grown up there as a little kid,’ Bode added.
‘The house we got is fantastic. Ski in and ski out. Got a lot of space, beautiful views, a yard. You’re on nature, so kids can just go outside and go rip around. And I think it checked all the boxes for us.’
Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test premieres on FOX on September 25
