A five-year-old Michigan boy was killed Friday morning when the hyperbaric chamber he was inside for some treatment exploded. A hyperbaric chamber is meant for oxygen therapy as this enclosed space delivers pure oxygen to the body higher than the normal air pressure for several treatments including “life-saving, limb-saving, and tissue-saving” ones.
According to a CBS report, police and firefighters responded to the Oxford Medical Center in Troy around 8am Friday after the explosion was reported. When emergency responders arrived at the facility, they found the boy dead inside the chamber. His mother was injured in her arms as she was near the charmer when it exploded. Nobody else was injured in the explosion.
As these treatments have become very common, fear spread over the incident. The center said it was an exceptional incident and nothing like this happened ever in the 15 years they are providing service.
“This is 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 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,” the statement issued by the center said.
