What Happens in a Hyperbaric Chamber?

A boy died on Jan. 31 when the hyperbaric chamber he was in exploded. Thomas Cooper, 5, had been reportedly getting treatment for several medical conditions at The Oxford Center in Troy, Mich.

A hyperbaric chamber is a contained, highly pressurized space that increases the delivery of 100% oxygen to the body. It can be a room or a chamber that fits just one person. As the patient relaxes and breathes, the lungs — and therefore, the body’s tissues — receive up to three times the normal amount of oxygen. Wounds, infections and burns can heal more quickly in hyperbaric chambers, and it is a life-saving treatment for people with carbon monoxide poisoning or air bubbles in their blood vessels, according to the Mayo Clinic.

As the Cleveland Clinic explains, the conditions inside hyperbaric chambers help heal damaged tissue at a faster rate, encouraging the growth of new skin, blood vessels and connective tissue.

Actor Jeremy Renner credited the chamber with helping him recover after he sustained “blunt chest trauma" and other injuries when he was run over by a 14,300-lb. snowplow in Reno, Nev., on Jan. 1, 2023.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration points out that the “devices are not proven to cure cancer, Lyme disease, autism or Alzheimer’s disease." But as the Cooper family lawyer James Harrington, managing partner of Fieger Law in Southfield, Michigan, told NBC, their son was being treated for ADHD and sleep apnea; Hyperbaric chambers are not FDA-approved treatments for those disorders.

“This wasn’t some type of lifesaving measure that was absolutely needed. It was just a mother who was trying to help her son with some conditions that he had and was promised that with these conditions and this treatment, that they would be able to help,” Harrington told NBC about The Oxford Center, which lists more than 100 conditions on its website, including ADD (attention deficit disorder), autism, Alzheimer’s, Lyme disease, and cancer, as treatable by hyperbaric chambers. The Food and Drug Administration has not approved hyperbaric oxygen therapy as treatment for those conditions.

Related: Marc Jacobs Documents His Facelift Before Recovering in an Oxygen Chamber: 'Live Love Lift'

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The FDA cautions, “High concentrations of oxygen also pose the risk of fire, which is one reason why the FDA recommends treatment at an accredited facility.  Explosions and fires have occurred in HBOT chambers that have not been reviewed by the FDA and are located at unaccredited facilities.”

Four people have been arrested in Cooper’s death, per NBC News, including the founder and CEO of the alternative medicine facility. The Oxford Center was not accredited, according to the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society.

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