A Michigan family has filed a $100 million lawsuit after their 5-year-old son was burned to death inside a pressurized oxygen chamber during a medical treatment session. Thomas Cooper, a preschooler from Royal Oak, was declared dead on January 31 at the Oxford Center, a suburban Detroit facility in Troy.
The boy had been placed inside the chamber for ADHD treatment when it suddenly exploded. His mother, Juana Cooper, who tried to rescue him, was also injured in the incident. Attorneys from Fieger Law, representing Thomas’ parents, James and Juana Cooper, announced the lawsuit this week.
The legal filing accuses the chamber’s manufacturer and operators of prioritizing profit over safety and labels their behavior as reckless. Attorney Geoffrey Fieger alleged that the tragedy was entirely preventable. He said the defendants “chose profits over people, consigning patients to be strapped into a chamber that became a human incinerator the instant a spark ignited.”
He further claimed that “the conduct was not mere negligence. It was conscious, deliberate, and depraved.” According to the lawsuit, the defendants were fully aware of the risks associated with the oxygen chamber but continued to operate it without adequate safeguards.
“The defendants knew with absolute certainty that if a fire occurred in one of its chambers, the patient inside would be burned alive, with zero chance of survival,” the filing states, citing a report from the Express US.
The court documents go on to say that Thomas’ death was not a random mishap. Instead, the lawsuit calls it a foreseeable consequence of “callous indifference to human life.” It concludes with the claim that “Young Thomas Cooper paid the ultimate price for the defendants’ corporate greed.”
The incident has also led to criminal charges against several individuals connected to the facility. Four people were charged in March, including Oxford Center founder and CEO Tamela Peterson. Peterson, 58, now faces a second-degree murder charge related to the child’s death.
The tragedy has raised urgent questions about the safety of pressurized oxygen chambers, often marketed as alternative treatments for conditions such as autism, ADHD, and chronic pain. Critics argue that such facilities operate in a regulatory gray area, with limited oversight to ensure patient safety.
For the Coopers, the lawsuit represents not only a demand for accountability but also an effort to prevent similar tragedies in the future. Their son’s death, described as both horrifying and avoidable, has shaken the community and brought renewed scrutiny to the risks of unregulated medical treatments.