Thomas Cooper: Hyperbaric chamber fire tragedy that killed 5yo, subject of $US100m lawsuit in Michigan

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

The parents of a small child, who was engulfed in flames after the hyperbaric chamber in which he was receiving treatment exploded, have launched a monster lawsuit against the care providers.

Thomas Cooper was only five years old on January 31, when he entered The Oxford Centre in Troy, Michigan, in the US, and was placed in the chamber in a bid to ease his sleep apnea and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Soon after the treatment commenced, the chamber burst into flames, killing the child, in a tragic incident which is now the subject of a $US100 million ($A151 million) legal case.

“There’s a time period that it takes to pressurise and within a short period of time, he becomes engulfed in flames,” said James Harrington, a lawyer representing the Cooper family.

The lawsuit claims that the fire “was a foreseeable, inevitable, and virtually certain result of Defendants’ callous indifference to human life,” according to CBS News.

People are reporting that the gross negligence suit filed on Monday against Sechrist Industries, the manufacturer of the hyperbaric chamber, claims that they (Sechrist Industries) “manufactured, designed, tested, and placed into the stream of commerce its monochamber with full knowledge that it was, in essence, a coffin waiting to ignite.”

“Sechrist Industries was acutely aware that the introduction of a single spark, arc, or ignition source in its chamber – pressurised with pure oxygen - would create an inferno from which no patient could possibly escape alive,” the lawsuit claims

The risks involved with placing the hyperbaric chamber onto the market were monumental, according to the Coopers’ legal team.

“There were so many failures,” Mr Harrington told People.

“It was designed and manufactured without fire suppression systems, without a deluge system, without an automatic fire detection system, without an effective emergency extraction system, without any warnings whatsoever regarding fire and explosion hazards without any warnings regarding prohibited items to be taken into the unit without any warnings whatsoever of electrical hazards, without any warnings and lack of an emergency extraction system.

“My fear is that there’s others operating out there in a similar way, endangering American families and Americans every single day.

“This is a very, very, very serious incident that was so preventable. And it’s my hope that through our collective work here with the family and our legal team we’re able to bring awareness on the use of these, inherent dangers that lie with the use of these hyperbaric chambers.”

Other defendants in the lawsuit include The Oxford Centre, its owner Tamela Peterson and three workers who are all facing criminal charges over the boy’s death.