Correction: This story has been updated to correct a factual error in the Key Points
Describing hyperbaric oxygen chambers as “death chambers,” the attorney for the family of a 5-year-old boy who died in one sued a California-based manufacturer, as well as several others, on Monday, Sept. 22 in Oakland County Circuit Court.
James Harrington, managing partner at Fieger Law, said he’s putting the hyperbaric oxygen industry on notice. He filed a complaint that says monoplace hyperbaric chambers, which are meant to treat a single person in an enclosed tube, are essentially “coffins waiting to ignite,” and that a single spark can trigger “an inferno from which no patient could possibly escape alive.”
The suit seeks $100 million.
“These machines are a problem,” he said during a Monday news conference at his office in Southfield. “The people operating them are a problem. And we saw what these problems can result in. They’ve resulted in the death of young, beautiful Thomas.”
Thomas Cooper died in a fire Jan. 31 at the Oxford Center in Troy, where he was undergoing hyperbaric oxygen therapy to treat ADHD and sleep apnea, conditions that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not authorized for treatment with hyperbaric oxygen.
“The industry knows that these machines can turn into literally a firebomb in an instant,” Harrington said. “But yet, there isn’t even one sticker. There isn’t even one warning that’s provided.
“People need to be warned.”
The complaint alleges that Sechrist Industries, Inc. “purposely” designed, manufactured, sold and maintained these monoplace hyperbaric chambers “without a fire-suppression system, a deluge system, an automatic fire detection system, and effective emergency extraction system, warnings regarding fire and/or explosion hazards, warnings regarding lack of emergency extraction system or warnings indicating the chamber had no fire suppression system.”
The Detroit Free Press reached out to Sechrist Industries for comment, but did not get an immediate response.
Harrington released new photos, pointing out the charred gurney where Thomas was when he died as well as the blackened outline where he lay.
The lawyer said greed is the driving factor behind the way the devices are manufactured, and called on the industry to do better.
“Allocate some of the billions of dollars that you make towards safety,” Harrington said Monday, “And don’t keep an eye solely on shareholders, boards of directors and profits and bottom line. Make sure that they’re being used for that and not … experiment projects on young children in American families.”
Others named in the lawsuit, which Harrington brought on behalf of Thomas’ parents, James and Juana Cooper, are the Oxford Center; its owner, Tamela Peterson, and three workers criminally charged in Thomas’ death — Gary Marken, Jeffrey Mosteller and Aleta Harward Moffitt — as well as Office Ventures of Troy, LLC, which owns the Troy property.
Harrington said Juana Cooper, known as Annie Cooper, was seriously burned when she tried to get her son out of the fiery chamber. Her physical wounds are healing, but the emotional damage will never heal.
“This will forever change you,” he said. “There’s nothing we can do to bring him back. There’s no justice that can ever be considered perfect justice, because perfect justice would be we win the case, and Thomas is playing in the backyard.”
Free Press staff writer Andra May Sahouri contributed to this story.
Contact Kristen Shamus: kshamus@freepress.com. Subscribe to the Detroit Free Press.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Family of boy who died seeks $100M in lawsuit against hyperbaric manufacturer, others
Reporting by Kristen Jordan Shamus, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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