Four people were criminally charged on Monday in January’s death of a 5-year-old Michigan boy who was reportedly killed in a hyperbaric chamber explosion.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed second-degree murder charges against Oxford Center CEO and founder Tamela Peterson, 58, director of operations Gary Marken, 65, and safety director Jeffrey Alan Mosteller, 64. Aleta Harward Moffitt, 60, who was operating the hyperbaric chamber when Thomas Cooper died, was charged with involuntary manslaughter, according to the Detroit Free Press.
READ: Family Hires Law Firm After 5-Year-Old Boy Is Killed in Hyperbaric Chamber Explosion
Cooper was killed at the Troy facility on January 31. His mom was also injured in the explosion, according to WDIV.
Nessel said Oxford Center officials defied “international safety standards in accordance with whatever would provide them the most income or profit.” Danielle Hagaman-Clark, the Michigan Attorney General’s criminal bureau chief, revealed that the hyperbaric oxygen chamber did not have a fire-suppression system.
According to the Detroit Free Press, prosecutors said the facility did not conduct a daily maintenance check on the chamber the day Cooper died. They allegedly also did not have a doctor supervising the procedure. Prosecutors also claimed that a licensed technician did not perform the treatment — nor was Thomas wearing a grounding strap.
The family’s attorney, James Harrington, told the Detroit Free Press that Cooper was undergoing treatment for ADHD and sleep apnea when the chamber exploded. Cooper’s mother tried to rescue her son from the device but she was forced to watch him burn to death, Harrington said.
“Poor Thomas … his last moments of life were being engulfed in flames and perishing in front of his mother. He was certainly aware of what was going on,” the lawyer commented.
Moffitt was also charged with intentionally placing false information on a medical record. Their arraignment is scheduled for Tuesday.
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