Parents of boy, 5, who died in hyperbaric chamber explosion remember curious, energetic, smart son

The family of a 5-year-old boy killed Jan.31 while getting care at an alternative medicine center in Michigan is “absolutely devastated,” their lawyer told NBC News Friday.James Harrington, managing partner of personal injury firm Fieger Law, told the outlet the parents have gone through something “no parent should ever, ever have to go through.”Thomas Cooper was receiving hyperbaric oxygen therapy for ADHD and sleep apnea at the Oxford Center, an alternative medicine facility in the Detroit suburb of Troy, when the hyperbaric chamber lit up in a “fiery explosion.”His mom, Annie Cooper, rushed to try to save him and suffered “significant burns” to her arm.Thomas was a “curious, energetic, smart, outgoing and thoughtful little boy” according to his obituary.“At school, he once saw a classmate being bullied and immediately decided to make him a picture to cheer him up,” it said.“He loved life,” his mother said in a GoFundMe page created to help the family with the costs associated with his passing.“His favorite thing to do is super sonic mode.

Run as fast as humanly possibly,” the mourning mother wrote.The Oxford Center did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.In a statement to the Detroit Free Press, spokesman Andrew Kistner said the cause of the explosion is unknown.“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,” Kistner wrote.Hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which involves having patients breathe in 100% oxygen by being in a pressurized chamber, is cleared by the FDA for some conditions, but the agency warns it’s unproven for many others.“Annie was trying to help her child as any parent would — as good parents do,” Harrington said, adding the family plans to file a lawsuit against the center....