It has been reported that a five-year-old boy died after being “incinerated” inside a pressurised oxygen chamber while undergoing alternative treatment for ADHD and sleep apnoea. Thomas Cooper was pronounced dead at the scene on Jan 31 at the Oxford Center in Detroit. The following people have been charged in connection with the boy’s death:
- The center’s founder and chief executive, Tamela Peterson, 58, was charged with second-degree murder.
- The facility’s manager Gary Marken, 65, and safety manager Gary Mosteller, 64, were charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.
- The operator of the chamber when it exploded, Aleta Moffitt, 60, was charged with involuntary manslaughter and intentionally placing false medical information on a medical records chart.
The boy was undergoing hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurised chamber.
A hyperbaric chamber at the Oxford Center Credit: David Guralnic
“A single spark it appears ignited into a fully involved fire that claimed Thomas’s life within seconds,” Dana Nessel, Michigan’s Attorney General, explained. “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 added.
Thomas had been undergoing unapproved treatment for ADHD and sleep apnoea
Ms Nessel accused those charged of putting children’s bodies at risk through unaccredited and debunked treatments for profit. Raymond Cassar, the attorney for centre manager Mr Marken, said the second-degree murder charge comes as “a total shock”. “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.”
Ms Nessel 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.”
5 Responses to A 5-year old boy has been ‘incinerated’ in an oxygen chamber undergoing alternative treatment for ADHD
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This kind of HBOT fills with oxygen and is much more dangerous than HBOTs that fill with pressurized air and the oxygen is only through the mask, I don’t understand why the first kind is still in use with its known dangers, and for kids?! irresponsible.
hear, hear!
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy does have a place in managing some conditions, such as for improving survival rate of plastic surgery flaps and dealing with gas gangarene. I worked at one such NHS facility – but all professional standards are met – including obtaining informed consent.
In this poor child’s case. either the parents were not told there was no evidence that such therapy had any beneficial effect on the conditions in question, or they wilfully ignored that information.
Sigh.
More detail here.
https://drpeterwilmshurst.wordpress.com/2025/02/21/recent-death-confirms-regulators-are-failing-to-protect-patients/
The MHRA refuses to regulate these dangerous devices and their practitioners.
Safety regulations for oxygen-rich environments mandate the use of anti-static wrist-straps. These extremely cheap and simple devices prevent the build-up and discharge of static electricity (read: sparks) that could otherwise start a catastrophic fire.
I understand that the Oxford Center never used these straps, even though they came with the hyperbaric chambers and were mentioned in the safety instructions; they just had them lying around in the back of a drawer somewhere.