The parents of a US boy who died a horrific death inside a hyperbaric oxygen chamber that exploded in January have filed a lawsuit, alleging the five-year-old perished because of “corporate greed”.
NBC News reports that the lawsuit, filed in Michigan, calls Thomas Cooper’s death the result of “callous indifference to human life” by the manufacturer of the oxygen chamber and the alternative medicine clinic that operated it.
It said the boy’s parents were not adequately warned that hyperbaric oxygen therapy could pose a serious risk of death if a fire broke out, and that the hyperbaric chamber was designed without an effective way to extract someone during an emergency.
“The defendants knew with absolute certainty that if a fire occurred in one of its chambers, the patient inside would be burned alive, with zero chance of survival,” the lawsuit stated.
James and Juana Cooper had taken their son to the Oxford Centre multiple times to receive hyperbaric oxygen therapy for sleep apnoea and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, according to the family’s attorney, James Harrington.
“Not only were there zero warnings from any of the defendants … it’s actually quite the contrary. There was nothing but encouragement, support, to get Thomas into a chamber for the sole purpose of profit,” Harrington said.
The child was was killed on 31 January when a blaze started inside the hyperbaric chamber where he was undergoing treatment. His mother had suffered burns to her arm in an unsuccessful attempt to save her son as he burned alive in front of her.
The lawsuit names eight parties as defendants: the Oxford Centre; its CEO and three of its staff; the Oxford Kids Foundation, a non-profit associated with the centre; Office Ventures Troy I, the owners of the property that housed the Oxford Centre; and Sechrist Industries, the manufacturer of the hyperbaric chamber.
The lawsuit seeks more than $100m in damages.
The three Oxford Centre employees named in the civil lawsuit have also been charged criminally, each facing a count of second-degree murder and one count of involuntary manslaughter.
A fourth, who was operating the hyperbaric chamber at the time, was charged with one count of involuntary manslaughter and one count of intentionally placing false information in medical records.
All four have pleaded not guilty.
At hearings to determine whether there was enough evidence for a criminal trial to proceed, a hyperbaric chamber safety expert who visited the centre after the fire and reviewed video footage testified that static electricity sparked the deadly blaze, and that staff failed to follow basic safety standards that could have prevented the fire.
The lawsuit says the US Food and Drug Administration has approved hyperbaric oxygen treatment for 13 conditions, such as carbon monoxide poisoning, foot wounds related to diabetes, and decompression sickness in divers.
The Oxford Centre operated two locations before the tragedy and its website claims it treats more than 100 conditions, including autism, Alzheimer’s, dyslexia and cancer.
The FDA does not recognise hyperbaric oxygen therapy for those conditions, nor has it approved the therapy for the conditions for which Thomas’ family sought treatment.
The boy’s death put a spotlight on the largely unregulated use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in the wellness industry, which has promoted the use of the chambers for anti-ageing, mental health and other benefits.
The FDA has warned that some claims about what hyperbaric chambers can do are “unproven” and encourages patients to only go to facilities accredited by the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society. The Oxford Centre is not on the medical society’s accredited list.
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Four charged after boy’s hyperbaric chamber explosion death
Boy (5) killed in hyperbaric chamber explosion
Hyperbaric oxygen: Clinical trial reverses 2 cellular processes linked to ageing
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