TROY, Mich. – The family of 5-year-old Thomas Cooper, who was killed inside a hyperbaric chamber that exploded at an Oakland County healthcare facility, is seeking answers to find out what went wrong.
Cooper was killed on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025, while receiving treatment at the Oxford Center in Troy, and his mother, who was there with him, was injured as well.
Since then, the family has retained Fieger Law, who said the firm will represent the family of the child who was killed and the child’s mother, although a lawsuit has not yet been filed.
It’s been nearly three weeks since Cooper was killed while he was being treated in a chamber inside the Oxford Center.
If you Google the location in Troy, you’ll see it’s temporarily closed.
But not its Brighton location, which has the family seeking to make sure what happened to Cooper doesn’t happen to another family.
“Well, this has been a parent’s worst nightmare,” said Fieger Law’s managing partner, James Harrington.
Harrington is launching multiple investigations into the deadly incident.
Local 4 has learned that his mother, Annie, sat in the waiting room when someone notified her that something had gone wrong.
“She rushed back, and her son was engulfed in flames, and she tried and tried to get him out. And she suffered very bad burns,” Harrington said.
According to Harrington, doctors diagnosed Cooper with sleep apnea and ADHD.
The family said a relative paid over $8,000 in cash for 40 treatments.
On Jan. 31, they claimed it marked the child’s 36th trip inside the hyperbaric chamber.
According to our investigation, the FDA has cleared hyperbaric chambers for 13 disorders, not including sleep apnea and ADHD.
The Oxford Center’s website lists dozens of conditions as “conditions treated” on its hyperbaric oxygen therapy page.
“We have sent out multiple letters to preserve evidence to kind of stop everything in time where it’s at, so once we’re permitted to go in, we can get our experts to look at the evidence and not only the machine but also the surveillance video. The electronically stored data would be emails and hard drives,” Harrington said.
There are also questions about maintenance and training. While the Royal Oak family searches for answers, what is known is how Cooper
loved the outdoors, books, and his baby brother.
Cooper often sang, “I love mama, I love mama so very much.”
We did reach out to Troy police and the Oxford Center for a comment.
But we have not heard back from either of them.
The concern Tuesday (Feb. 18) night was that more oversight is needed in how these facilities operate hyperbaric chambers.
