The death of a 5 -year -old child in a hyperbaric chamber in Michigan has caused appeal for greater supervision of hyperbaric oxygenapia in the well -being industry to a large extent without supervision before another tragedy occurs.
Thomas Cooper was killed on January 31 when a fire broke out in a hyperbaric chamber at Oxford Center, an alternative medicine clinic in Troy’s suburb in Detroit. On Monday, the founder and CEO of Oxford Center and three of its employees were accused in the death of Thomas.
Courtesy of Thomas Cooper’s family
Hyperbaric cameras are pressurized tubeled devices that people lie or sit down to receive treatment, depending on the type of camera. The therapy implies breathing in the air consisting of 100% oxygen, which helps the body to heal more quickly, but also creates a highly fuel. The treatment method has been eliminated by food and medicines administration to help more than a dozen conditions, including carbon monoxide poisoning, serious injuries and decompression disease in divers.
The Oxford Center website lists in more than 100 conditions that it says, including many of those that the FDA has not approved for hyperbaric oxygenapia, such as cancer, dyslexia, Alzheimer’s, Lyme’s disease and autism, it is not illegal to use hyperbaric cameras for these purposes. In a statement to NBC News, a lawyer from the Center of Oxford said the center was “disappointed” by the positions filed against four staff members.
“The moment of these positions is surprising, since the typical protocol after an accident related to the fire has not yet been completed. There are still outstanding questions about how this happened, ”said Sam Vitale by email about Thomas’s death.
Thomas was receiving hyperbaric oxygherapy for sleep apnea and attention deficit disorder, according to his family’s lawyer, which are not among the conditions approved by the FDA for said treatment. The attorney general of Michigan, Dana Nessel, said that the child died in seconds after a single spark began a fire in the hyperbaric chamber in which he was. The officials have not yet said what the cause of the fire was.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Nessel accused Oxford Center staff of maintaining “security among their lower considerations”, but said that officials had no way of knowing about the danger until it was too late and cannot proactively investigate other facilities.
“Michigan’s law does not require any supervision on the use of hyperbaric chambers, so without having some probable cause to believe that crimes that involve hyperbaric cameras are committed in other parts of the state, we would not have the authority to enter and perform an inspection,” said Nessel.
The Oxford Center was subject to inspections every few years by the Troy Fire Department, said Michael Koehler, deputy director of the Fire Department. He said the center requested a permission when it opened, indicating that it would use hyperbaric cameras, and was last inspected in March 2023.
“But our inspections are focused on fire and life security,” Koehler said in a telephone interview on Friday. “There is nothing that covers the operation or maintenance of the cameras themselves.”
WHILE HOSPITALS THAT USE HYPERBARIC CHAMBERS ABIDE BY CODES DEVERS Peters, Executive Director of the Uneaa & Hyperbaric Medical Society, A NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION THAT ACCREDITS HOSPITALS AND FREESTANDING FACILITIES WITH HYPERBARIC CHAMBERS IN THE ABSENCE OF GOVERNMENTAL REGULATION.
At the moment, almost 150 facilities throughout the country are accredited by the group, with two in Michigan.
The accreditation process implies inspections and verification at the site that the team is maintained and the specialists are properly trained, and costs about $ 10,000 for an accreditation that lasts three or four years, said Peters.
He estimated that thousands of spas, well -being companies and other shop windows are operating hyperbaric cameras in the United States without having suffered accreditation, and said they fear that many are not defending strict standards.
Two Democratic legislators in Michigan, state senator Stephanie Chang and state representative Sharon Macdonell, are working together to explore the regulatory options after Thomas’s death.
Chang said he was alarmed by what seemed to be a myriad of problems that led to the fire, based on what Michigan’s attorney described, allegedly included not having a properly trained technician who operated the hyperbaric chamber.
“He fixes all those lagoons,” Chang said. She said she and Macdonell are aimed at introducing legislation in spring.
Macdonell said it was important not only to make hyperbaric cameras more safe, but also to prevent companies from making unesaled statements about what therapy can do.
“People are taking advantage of parents with children with difficult conditions to treat, and simply monetize the despair of parents,” he said. “It’s simply incomprehensible.”
Thomas’s death occurs when the use of hyperbaric oxygenapia has proliferated, gaining steam in recent years thanks to celebrities who have promoted it for everything, from anti -aging to increase their mental health. The FDA warned that some statements about what hyperbaric cameras can do are “not proven” and encourages patients to go alone to accredited facilities.
The fires of the hyperbaric chamber are rare, but not without precedents. In 2009, a 4 -year -old boy and his grandmother died after a fire in a non -accredited Florida clinic where the child was receiving treatment for cerebral palsy. Two staff members were accused in his death, one of whom was a doctor who lost his medical license.
The 2009 case did not cause national security regulations, said Peters. He hopes that Thomas’s death will.
“We desperately need a mandatory accreditation,” he said. “We hope this changes the page.”
While there are guidelines on how to build and safely operate hyperbaric chambers, there is no federal, state or local consistent supervision of the practice outside hospitals. The FDA said in an email last month that regulates certain hyperbaric chambers that meet the definition of the class II medical devices agency, which “are intended for use in the diagnosis of diseases or other conditions, or in the cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of diseases.” But it does not regulate the practice of medicine and refers to NBC News to the Medicare and Medicaid service centers, the joint commission and the state medical licenses agencies for more information.
The Medicare and Medicaid service centers require that Medicare and Medicaid suppliers meet parts of the National Fire Protection Association, but that does not apply to other facilities, which must still comply with local construction and fire codes, said Brian O’Connor, a senior engineer of the National Fire Protection Association.
The Joint Commission, a non -profit organization that accredits more than 24,000 medical care programs worldwide, said in an email that has emergency procedures and training exercises for hospitals that have hyperbaric cameras but that do not accredit places such as Oxford center.
Meanwhile, the Michigan Department of Health, its Occupational Security Agency and the Regulatory Licensing and Affairs Department said they do not have supervision of hyperbaric chambers. The Licensing Agency said that the facilities that use hyperbaric cameras are not licensed, which Peters said it was shocking.
“Because?” said. “Even a stylist has to have a license, and his entire room will not fly.”
