Background: Thomas Cooper (GoFundMe). Inset: The Oxford Center where he died after a hyperbaric chamber exploded (Google Maps).
A 5-year-old Michigan boy died when the hyperbaric chamber he was in exploded, and now his family has hired a lawyer to explore legal options.
Police and fire crews in the Detroit suburb of Troy responded just before 8 a.m. Friday to a call about an explosion at the Oxford Center medical facility in the 100 block of Kirts Boulevard, the agency said in a press release. When they arrived on scene they found the boy, Thomas Cooper, dead inside the hyperbaric chamber. His mother who was sitting next to the chamber also suffered injuries.
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Now his family hired well-known attorney Geoffrey Fieger to consider a possible lawsuit. Fieger is best known for representing Dr. Jack Kevorkian and families of the victims of the 2021 mass shooting at Oxford High School.
“This is an unimaginable tragedy, and our hearts are with the family as they navigate this immeasurable loss. We ask that the public and media respect the family’s privacy at this time,” said James Harrington, managing partner of Fieger law. “We are investigating every aspect of this matter and will report our findings in due time. The safety of children should always be the top priority, and this incident raises serious concerns about hyperbaric chambers and the oversight and regulation of hyperbaric treatments.”
Meanwhile, investigators are trying to determine what caused the explosion. While uncommon, the chamber contains 100 percent oxygen inside, which makes it highly combustible. It’s unclear why the boy needed to be inside the chamber, but it is typically used for carbon monoxide poisoning, decompression sickness or inflammatory bowel diseases, among other uses, according to the National Library of Medicine.
The Oxford Center specifically treats children in hyperbaric chambers, its website says. Tami Peterson, the founder and CEO, started the business after after a chamber helped her 9-year-old daughter recover from viral encephalitis, which is an inflammation of the brain.
“The safety and wellbeing of the children we serve is our highest priority,” the center said in a statement to the Associated Press. “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.”
A GoFundMe for Thomas has raised over $40,000 as of Sunday. The heartfelt tribute described Thomas as an active boy who enjoyed books, particularly James the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
“He was the smartest and cutest kid that liked to zoom, zoom, zoom,” the fundraiser said. “He asked to see pictures of germs, liked to know how things worked, he liked to make field journals and he had finally started adding facial features to his people drawings.”
It continued: “Before his passing, he asked for a Chinese red pocket money for the new year. He placed it underneath his pillow and declared “he’d have the best luck ever!” The day of his passing was the day he was planning to spend his red pocket with his little brother.”
