Boy dies in explosion of hyperbaric chamber at Troy medical facility

Show Caption

Hide Caption

When to call 911 and when to use non-emergency lines

This video explains the importance of knowing when to call 911 for emergencies and when to use non-emergency lines for less critical situations.

A 5-year-old boy from Royal Oak died Friday morning during an explosion of a hyperbaric chamber at a Troy medical center, police said.

The medical facility, The Oxford Center, is located at 165 Kirts Boulevard. The explosion happened shortly before 8 a.m. and police said the boy was found dead inside the chamber. His mother, who was injured, was there with him at the facility, officials said.

The Oxford Center's website says that it provides therapy for children with numerous conditions, like autism, cancers, ADHD, autoimmune diseases, and a slew of others.

Troy Fire Lt. Keith Young said investigators do not yet know what exactly caused the explosion, but concentrated oxygen and the pressure used in hyperbaric chambers are fuel for fire.

In a statement from The Oxford Center, spokesman Andrew Kistner wrote in an email that the cause of the explosion is unknown and that Friday was an "exceptionally difficult day for all of us."

"As law enforcement officials have shared, at our location in Troy, Michigan this morning, a fire started inside of a hyperbaric oxygen chamber. The child being treated in that chamber did not survive and the child’s mother was injured," the statement reads.

"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."

Troy Police Lt. Ben Hancock said the mother was standing right next to the chamber when it exploded and suffered injures to her arms.

He described the explosion as a "very sad incident".

Young said the state oversees hyperbaric medical chambers.

For decades, hyperbaric oxygen therapy has been used to relieve the effects of decompression sickness for scuba divers, to help firefighters, miners and others who have carbon monoxide poisoning, to improve the success of skin grafts and to speed up healing of infections, such as diabetic foot ulcers and gangrene, and in treatment of crush injuries, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Here’s how it works: People enter into either a monoplace chamber, which is built for one person, or a mulitplace chamber, which can fit two or more people.

In a monoplace chamber, a person lies down in a long, plastic tube that resembles an MRI machine. In a multiplace chamber, people breathe through masks or hoods.

Pure oxygen is pumped into a pressurized chamber, mask or hood and people inside breathe in the concentrated oxygen, which enters the bloodstream and tissues to boost healing and recovery from injury and helps the body fight infections.

Johns Hopkins Medicine reports that each session can last from 45 minutes to five hours, depending on the reason for the treatment.

The Oxford Center is among other alternative medical centers or medical spas who, in recent years, have offered hyperbaric oxygen therapy for conditions that are not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, such as autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, sports injuries, COVID-19, depression, alopecia, HIV/AIDS, strokes, migraine headaches, and as an anti-aging treatment, the Cleveland Clinic reports.

The Oxford Center, which has locations in Brighton and Troy, has generated controversy. In August, the facility's former director Kimberly Coden pleaded guilty to nine charges after officials with Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office said she used false credentials to treat children with autism.

She falsely presented herself as a board-certified behavioral analyst without being licensed and without the proper education and used an actual analyst’s certification to get jobs within the health sector, officials said. And she’d also used professional business cards, verbal statements, written documents and presented university degrees she allegedly didn’t earn.

Coden also tried to intimidate a witness through text messages to keep them from testifying against her, officials said.

When Coden pleaded guilty, her lawyer said her client was "really, truly remorseful."

Hazards of hyperbaric chambers

A study was published in the medical journal Lancet reviewing hyperbaric chamber fires over more than 70 years, from 1923 to 1996, and found that 77 people died in 35 fires. Before 1980, most of the fires were caused by electrical ignition. But since then, they were sparked by something that was carried into the hyperbaric chamber. 

Officials in Friday's explosion at the Oxford Center said they don't know whether someone brought something into the chamber before it exploded, but acknowledged the chambers create an environment that is "extremely combustible."

The National Fire Protection Association has written about the distinct hazards associated with hyperbaric facilities, including the increased pressure and presence of elevated oxygen levels.

In a Aug. 2021 blog post from the National Fire Protection Association, Brian O’Connor wrote:

"While oxygen itself is not flammable, it is an oxidizer that supports combustion and can increase the flammability of other materials," Brian O’Connor of the association wrote in Aug. 2021, including flame-resistant fabrics and materials.

“This means that care must be taken to prevent any means of ignition from entering the oxygen-enriched environment, since the conditions exist for a fire to grow rapidly."

O’Connor wrote that another fire safety problem with hyperbaric chamber facilities is that it’s difficult to evacuate the chamber when fires do occur.

“Since these chambers are pressurized, they must undergo a decompression process before occupants can safely exit. The process is required to take no more than six minutes for (multiplace) chambers and two minutes for (monoplace chambers) when returning from three times standard atmospheric pressure,” he wrote.

"These facts, he said, make it vital to ensure that any facility that uses a hyperbaric chamber adhere to strict fire safety regulations, such as allowing only certain fabrics to be worn and restricting other flammable materials to be brought inside the chamber, installing specialty sprinkler systems, and in some cases, independently supplied handlines."

This story was updated to add new information.

Free Press writer Darcie Moran contributed to this report.

Andrea Sahouri covers criminal justice for the Detroit Free Press. Contact her at asahouri@freepress.com or on X: @andreamsahouri.