Thomas Cooper’s parents were unaware of the danger their 5-year-old son faced when he climbed inside a hyperbaric oxygen chamber while wearing his Super Mario Bros. pajamas on the morning of Jan. 31, a lawyer representing the family told the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network.
The boy, described by his family as curious, energetic and thoughtful, was in the midst of his 36th hyperbaric oxygen therapy treatment at the Oxford Center in Troy, Michigan, when the pressurized chamber burst into flames. Thomas was trapped inside.
His mother, Annie Cooper, raced from a nearby waiting area to his side, but couldn’t get Thomas out of the sealed, tube-like chamber, said James Harrington, managing partner at Fieger Law, which is representing the family.
She was left to watch in horror as her son burned to death inside the chamber, which was full of highly combustible pure oxygen. Annie Cooper suffered third-degree burns to her arms, but the psychological trauma was far worse, Harrington said.
Thomas Cooper, age 5, died at The Oxford Center in Troy after a hyperbaric chamber he was in exploded.
“It’s literally the worst thing that any parent could (experience),” he said. “And 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.”
In an interview with the Detroit Free Press on Monday, Harrington said an investigation is ongoing into what triggered the fire that killed Thomas, and what regulatory oversight, if any, is in place to protect people undergoing hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
“An event like this should never, ever, ever happen,” he said, “and it did. And the only reason that something like that happens is either equipment malfunction or operator user error by the staff or a combination of both.
“These are potentially extremely dangerous treatments, as we know from what happened with Thomas. And where’s the oversight? Where’s the regulatory board that’s looking at this to make sure that these machines are being serviced according to manufacturer specs, and a manufacturer has a contract to service these?”
Troy Fire Lt. Keith Young said on the day of the blaze that the state oversees hyperbaric oxygen chambers, but it remained unclear Tuesday which agency has authority or whether an investigation has reached the state level.
The Free Press left messages this week with the Troy Police and Fire departments, but did not get a response.
Anastasha Osborn, assistant deputy director of the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, which oversees the Bureau of Fire Services and the State Fire Marshal, told the Free Press: “Michigan does not require hyperbaric oxygen facilities to be licensed by the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA). … Local government authorities … are responsible for fire code enforcement and inspections of these facilities.”
Michigan State Police First Lt. Michael Shaw said Tuesday its Special Investigation Section has not been asked to assist in an investigation. The Free Press also sent a message to state Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office to inquire whether it is involved in any investigation of the fire, but did not get an immediate answer.
Treatment not FDA approved for boy’s conditions
The ordinary air people breathe contains about 21% oxygen, while the air inside a hyperbaric chamber is made up of 100% pure oxygen in a pressurized environment.
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, that increased air pressure helps a person’s lungs get more oxygen to tissues throughout the body, which can help it heal and fight certain infections.
Treatments have been shown to relieve decompression sickness for scuba divers, to help firefighters, miners and others recover from carbon monoxide poisoning, to improve the success of skin grafts and to speed up the healing of infections, such as diabetic foot ulcers and gangrene, and in treatment of crush injuries.
Thomas Cooper, age 5, died at The Oxford Center in Troy after a hyperbaric chamber he was in exploded.
The FDA also has authorized hyperbaric oxygen therapy to treat severe anemia, radiation injuries and some types of complete and sudden hearing and vision loss.
But some facilities in recent years have offered hyperbaric oxygen therapy for other conditions, such as autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, sports injuries, COVID-19, depression, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, strokes, migraine headaches and as an anti-aging treatment.
Thomas was being treated for ADHD and sleep apnea, Harrington said. Those treatments also are not FDA approved. Harrington the Cooper family was lured into believing the treatments could help their son.
A Troy Police Department officer walks outside the Oxford Center in Troy on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025.
“Parents will do almost anything to help their child,” he said.
“You have to look at it from the consumer mind, right?” he said. “The consumer … will go to websites, they’ll read testimonials, they’ll read reviews. It’s how we do a lot of our shopping, and the consumer is going to do what they believe to be their due diligence, and what is baked into that is a level of trust.”
“I don’t know if people understand how dangerous 100% oxygen is, and that’s why the onus, and the responsibility, is on the manufacturer for ensuring that there are the proper safeguards as well as on the facility to provide the training and supervision. …
“And if anything happens, the burden is what we carry. But Annie did nothing wrong. She didn’t do anything wrong. She did everything right for her son and tried to help him, and then tried to save him.”
Questions abound on oversight of hyperbaric devices
Thomas Cooper, age 5, died at The Oxford Center in Troy after a hyperbaric chamber he was in exploded.
The FDA does not license hyperbaric chamber devices, but it does regulate hyperbaric chambers that meet its definition of Class II medical devices “intended for use in the diagnosis of disease or other conditions, or in the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, in humans or other animals, or devices intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of humans or other animals.”
“These devices must undergo FDA review and receive FDA clearance before they may be sold or otherwise distributed in the U.S. FDA clearance of a medical device includes a determination that the device is substantially equivalent to an existing legally marketed medical device in the U.S. of that type.”
The Oxford Center did not respond to an email or phone call from the Free Press on Monday seeking comment. In response to a previous story, spokesperson Andrew Kistner issued an emailed statement: “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 FDA recommends that people check with their health care provider before undergoing hyperbaric oxygen therapy and seek treatment only at a facility that has been inspected and is properly accredited by the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society.
Hyperbaric therapy poses unique fire danger
A study was published in 1997 in the medical journal Lancet reviewing hyperbaric chamber fires over more than 70 years, from 1923 to 1996, and found that 77 people died in 35 fires. Before 1980, most of the fires were caused by electrical ignition. But since then, fires have mostly been sparked by something that was carried into the hyperbaric chamber.
Harrington said Thomas did not carry anything into the chamber during the treatment. He said two other people were undergoing treatment in separate hyperbaric chambers at the same time as Thomas in the same room, but were safely evacuated.
Thomas Cooper, age 5, died at The Oxford Center in Troy after a hyperbaric chamber he was in exploded.
The National Fire Protection Association has written about the hazards associated with hyperbaric facilities because of the increased pressure and elevated oxygen levels. In an August 2021 post from the association, Brian O’Connor wrote that it’s difficult to evacuate the hyperbaric chambers when fires occur.
“Since these chambers are pressurized, they must undergo a decompression process before occupants can safely exit,” he wrote. That process can take minutes.
These facts, he said, make it vital to ensure that any facility that uses a hyperbaric chamber adhere to strict fire safety regulations, such as allowing only certain fabrics to be worn and restricting other flammable materials inside the chamber, installing specialty sprinkler systems and, in some cases, fire hoses that can be used by hand.
Harrington said people need to know the risks.
“A certain level of awareness really needs to be brought to this so that people fully understand and can really give the appropriate informed consent for what they’re going to. If all they’re hearing is that it’s safe and it’s OK, well then the consumer doesn’t know any different,” he said.
Free Press staff writer Andrea May Sahouri contributed to this article. Contact Kristen Shamus: [email protected]. Subscribe to the Free Press.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: After boy dies in hyperbaric chamber fire lawyer questions oversight
