Four people have been charged in connection with a hyperbaric chamber explosion that killed a five-year-old Michigan boy.
Thomas Cooper was killed on Jan. 31, 2025, when the chamber where he was receiving hyperbaric oxygen therapy treatment burst into flames.
“A single spark, it appears, ignited into a fully-involved fire that claimed Thomas’ life within seconds,” Michigan’s Attorney General Dana Nessel said at a news conference Tuesday.
“Fires inside a hyperbaric chamber are considered a terminal event. Every such fire is almost certainly fatal and this is why many procedures and essential safety practices have been developed to keep a fire from ever occurring,” she said.
Tamela Peterson, the 58-year-old founder and chief executive of the Oxford Center, where the boy received his treatments, is charged with second-degree murder. The facility’s manager Gary Marken, 65, and safety manager Gary Mosteller, 64, are charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.
The operator of the chamber when it exploded, Aleta Moffitt, 60, is charged with involuntary manslaughter and intentionally placing false medical information on a medical records chart.
According to Fox2 Detroit, the boy’s family had paid US$8,000 for oxygen therapy treatments for the young boy, reportedly hoping the sessions would help his sleep apnea and ADHD.
His mother was beside the chamber on the day of the explosion, and was seriously injured.
“She rushed back to where her son was to find him engulfed in flames, and she was doing everything possible to get him out while sustaining significant burns to her arm,” James Harrington, the lawyer representing the boy’s parents, told WJBK last month.
FILE – A hyperbaric chamber at the Oxford Center in Brighton, Mich., is shown Feb. 8, 2024.
David Guralnick/Detroit News via AP
The lawyer for the Oxford Center told Fox2 they are disappointed in the charges filed.
“The timing of these charges is surprising, as the typical protocol after a fire-related accident has not yet been completed. There are still outstanding questions about how this occurred. Yet, the Attorney General’s office proceeded to pursue charges without those answers,” the statement read in part.
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“Our highest priority every day is the safety and wellbeing of the children and families we serve, which continues during this process.”
On Tuesday, Nessel said the defendants unscrupulously put children’s bodies at risk through unaccredited and debunked treatments, simply because it brought cash through the door. She said putting the boy in a pressurized oxygen chamber for the ailments he suffered “is not supported by medical science.”
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not list hyperbaric oxygen therapy as an effective treatment for sleep apnea or ADHD.
“Because these treatments were so medically unsound, patient insurance policies would not cover the use of these chambers to treat these conditions,” Nessel said. “This business was a pure cash-flow, for-profit business.”
The second-degree murder charge comes as “a total shock,” said Raymond Cassar, Marken’s lawyer.
“For fairness, he is presumed innocent,” Cassar told the Associated Press. “This was a tragic accident and our thoughts and our prayers go out to the family of this little boy. I want to remind everyone that this was an accident, not an intentional act. We’re going to have to leave this up to the experts to find out what was the cause of this.”
Moffitt’s lawyer, Ellen Michaels, also extended prayers and sympathy to Cooper’s family, while asking for “patience and fairness as this process unfolds.”
“This event has had a profound impact on so many, including my client, the community, and the first responders,” Michaels said in a statement to the AP. “I pray for healing for all those affected.
“Aleta Moffitt is a dedicated professional with many years of experience in the healthcare industry. She has always been a committed and hardworking individual, adhering to all corporate policies and procedures while prioritizing the well-being of her patients.”
Hyperbaric therapy delivers pure oxygen to a person’s body inside the pressurized chamber. That’s up to five times the amount of oxygen in a normal room, Troy Fire Lt. Keith Young said following the explosion.
“The presence of such a high amount of oxygen in a pressurized environment can make it extremely combustible,” Young said.
Nessel called Cooper’s death “an easily preventable tragedy.”
A maintenance check on the chamber had not been performed that day, no medical doctor or safety supervisor was on-site and the treatment was not performed by a licensed technician. Yearly inspections had not been conducted, and “the essential patient-worn grounding strap was not used,” she said.
The FDA has cleared hyperbaric chambers to be marketed as safe and effective for a list of 13 disorders, such as severe burns, decompression sickness and non-healing wounds. The list doesn’t include many of the other disorders advertised by the Oxford Center.
The FDA also recommends that consumers only use hyperbaric centres that are inspected and accredited by the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society. The Oxford Center doesn’t appear on the society’s February 2025 list of accredited facilities.
Nessel said her office extensively consulted experts on hyperbaric chambers and treatments.
“Horrifying and simple conclusions were reached,” she said. “The Oxford Center routinely operated sensitive and lethally dangerous hyperbaric chambers beyond their expected service lifetime and in complete disregard of vital safety measures and practices considered essential by medical and technical professionals.”
— With files from the Associated Press