The parents of a 5-year-old who was killed in a hyperbaric chamber fire last month in Michigan are “absolutely devastated” over their son’s death and have experienced something that “no parent should ever, ever have to go through,” their attorney said Friday.
James Harrington, managing partner of Fieger Law in Southfield, Michigan, said Thomas Cooper’s parents had taken him to receive multiple sessions of hyperbaric oxygen therapy for sleep apnea and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder at the Oxford Center, an alternative medicine facility in the Detroit suburb of Troy that says it treats over 100 conditions, such as autism, Alzheimer’s, dyslexia and cancer. The Food and Drug Administration does not recognize hyperbaric oxygen therapy for those conditions.
Thomas was killed on Jan. 31 in an incident that Troy police and fire officials have described as a fiery explosion in the chamber. Speaking for the first time about the case on Friday, Harrington said Thomas’ mom, Annie Cooper, rushed to try to save her son when the fire started.
“She has significant burns on her arm, and that was done during a rescue attempt to try to get her child out of the burning flames,” he told NBC News. “She was trying and trying to get him out, and was unsuccessful.”
“She does have visible burns,” he added. “But the real problem for her is going to be the emotional trauma.”
The Oxford Center, which has two locations in Michigan, did not immediately return multiple requests for comment on Friday about the circumstances that led to Thomas’ death. After the incident, it released a statement to other media outlets that read, “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.”
Its Troy location is temporarily closed while authorities conduct an investigation into the deadly fire. A spokesperson for Troy police said Friday that he had no updates to share about the investigation. No charges have been filed.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which involves the delivery of 100% oxygen in a pressurized, tubelike chamber, is cleared by the FDA to treat a handful of conditions, including carbon monoxide poisoning, certain types of wounds and burns, and decompression sickness in scuba divers. The FDA regulates certain hyperbaric chambers that meet the agency’s definition of Class II medical devices, which are “intended for use in the diagnosis of disease or other conditions, or in the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease.”
In recent years, spas, wellness centers and other unaccredited facilities have started promoting hyperbaric oxygen therapy as a treatment for a variety of health problems, and the FDA warns “some claims of what it can do are unproven.” The FDA does not list sleep apnea and ADHD among the conditions the therapy can treat, though there has been some research indicating it may help with sleep apnea and there have been some anecdotal claims it may help ADHD.
Harrington described Thomas as a sweet child who loved his little brother, and he said Thomas’ parents were hopeful he would benefit from the hyperbaric oxygen therapy services offered at the Oxford Center.
“This wasn’t some type of lifesaving measure that was absolutely needed. It was just a mother who was trying to help her son with some conditions that he had and was promised that with these conditions and this treatment, that they would be able to help,” Harrington said. “Annie was trying to help her child as any parent would — as good parents do.”
The family, who lives in Royal Oak, Michigan, plans to file a lawsuit “to make sure that this doesn’t happen again and that somebody else doesn’t get hurt,” Harrington said.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy works by having patients breathe in 100% pure oxygen as the air pressure inside the hyperbaric chamber is increased to assist in delivering the oxygen to the patient’s lungs. Room air, by comparison, is only 21% oxygen.
The oxygen needs to be administered by people who are highly trained in using the equipment, said Tom Workman, the former director of quality assurance and regulatory affairs at the Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society, a nonprofit organization that accredits facilities with hyperbaric chambers.
He said his group has long pushed for greater oversight of any facility that performs hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
“This is being promoted by the wellness community. They’re saying, ‘These are not medical chambers, we are using them for wellness, and wellness is not regulated by the FDA,’” he said. “This, in my opinion, is wrong.”
In an email to NBC News, the FDA said other agencies, such as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Joint Commission and state medical licensing agencies, regulate the practice of medicine. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Joint Commission did not immediately comment on Friday, nor did the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs.
“As a general matter, if the FDA becomes aware of an incident involving a device failure or malfunction, the FDA follows appropriate processes to review and gather information on the incident to determine appropriate next steps, including but not limited to a device recall or a safety communication,” it said.
The FDA warns on its website that hyperbaric oxygen therapy devices “are not proven to cure cancer, Lyme disease, autism or Alzheimer’s disease,” and it advises patients to check with their health care providers to see if hyperbaric oxygen therapy is right for them.
The FDA also recommends going to a facility that has been evaluated and accredited by the Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society, which has a map of accredited facilities on its website. The Oxford Center is not listed among the accredited facilities.
The Troy Fire Department said after Thomas’ death that while the presence of that much oxygen in a pressurized environment can support combustion, “our initial research shows that this type of incident is uncommon.”
But it is not without precedent: In 2009, a 4-year-old and his grandmother died after a fire ignited in a hyperbaric chamber at an unaccredited Florida clinic where the child was receiving treatment for cerebral palsy. Two staff members were charged in their deaths, one of whom was a doctor who did not serve jail time but lost his medical license. The status of the legal case against the other employee, the center’s safety director, was not clear.
Harrington said the Coopers’ lawsuit would look at any alleged failures that could have contributed to his death.
“Whether it’s operator error or machine malfunction, it should never, ever happen under any circumstances,” he said.
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