5-year-old boy killed after hyperbaric chamber explodes during oxygen therapy

16 February 2025 , 21:45

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5-year-old boy killed after hyperbaric chamber explodes during oxygen therapy

The parents of a young boy who died while receiving oxygen therapy have said they are ‘absolutely devastated’.

Five-year-old Thomas Cooper had undergone several hyperbaric oxygen therapy sessions at the Oxford Center, an alternative medicine facility in a Detroit suburb.

Thomas died on January 31 after what police and fire officials called a ‘fiery explosion’ in the oxygen chamber.

Now James Harrington, the lawyer representing Thomas’s parents, told NBC News they are ‘absolutely devastated’ by their loss.

Thomas’s mother, Annie Cooper, rushed into the facility to try and save her son when the fire started, leaving her with significant burns on her arms.

‘She was trying and trying to get him out, and was unsuccessful,’ James said.

He was only five years old when he died (Picture: GoFundMe)

‘She does have visible burns, but the real problem for her is going to be the emotional trauma.’

Thomas’s parents were hopeful their son would benefit from the treatments, James said, adding: ‘This wasn’t some type of lifesaving measure that was absolutely needed.

‘It was just a mother who was trying to help her son with some conditions that he had and was promised that with these conditions and this treatment, that they would be able to help.

‘Annie was trying to help her child as any parent would — as good parents do.’

Thomas was being treated for sleep apnea and ADHD at the Oxford Center.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy involves 100% oxygen being delivered in a pressurised, tubelike chamber.

It’s cleared by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat a handful of conditions, including carbon monoxide poisoning, certain types of wounds and burns, and decompression sickness in scuba divers.

His mum tried to rescue him from the flames (Picture: GoFundMe)

However, as its use to treat other health problems has increased in recent years, including autism, dyslexia and cancer, the FDA has warned ‘some claims of what it can do are unproven’.

The FDA doesn’t list sleep apnea and ADHD among the conditions hyperbaric oxygen therapy can treat.

The Oxford Center released a statement to Michigan news outlets which said:’The safety and wellbeing of the children we serve is our highest priority.

‘Nothing like this has happened in our more than 15 years of providing this type of therapy.

‘We do not know why or how this happened and will participate in all of the investigations that now need to take place.’

The Cooper family plans to file a lawsuit against the Oxford Center ‘to make sure that this doesn’t happen again and that somebody else doesn’t get hurt’, James said.

Mum Annie has also set up a GoFundMe page to cover the costs of his funeral.

Thomas Brown