Ex-safety manager gets 19 months in prison over five-year-old's death in hyperbaric chamber fire
A former safety manager at a Michigan alternative health clinic has been sentenced to 19 months in prison after a five-year-old died in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber explosion in January 2025. Three other former employees still await trial over the same incident.
A Michigan circuit court has sentenced a former safety manager to one year and seven months in prison in connection with the death of a five-year-old boy killed in an explosion inside a hyperbaric oxygen chamber. Jeffrey Mosteller, 66, received the sentence in Oakland County after entering a no-contest plea to involuntary manslaughter, despite facing up to 15 years behind bars.
Mosteller worked as safety manager at the Oxford Center, a facility in the Detroit suburb of Troy that treats children with conditions such as autism, ADHD and autoimmune diseases using hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
In January 2025, five-year-old Thomas Cooper of Royal Oak was undergoing treatment for ADHD and sleep apnea at the center when a fire broke out inside the chamber and triggered an explosion. According to an expert who reviewed video footage, Cooper had shifted enough inside the chamber to pull a sheet off the mattress, creating a spark of static electricity that ignited into a flash fire within seconds due to the oxygen-rich environment. His mother suffered severe burns to her arms and chest while trying to open the tank to reach him.
Mosteller is one of four former Oxford Center employees charged over the boy's death. The others are still awaiting trial: founder and chief executive Tamela Peterson, 58, faces a second-degree murder charge; facility manager Gary Marken, 65, faces charges of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter; and Aleta Moffitt, 60, who was operating the chamber at the time of the explosion, faces involuntary manslaughter charges along with allegations of entering false information on a medical records chart.
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved hyperbaric chambers as safe and effective for 13 specific conditions, including severe burns and decompression sickness. However, the treatment's growing use for other conditions has fueled ongoing debate over its safety as it pushes further into mainstream healthcare. Cooper's parents have filed a $100m wrongful death lawsuit against the clinic and the chamber's manufacturer.
