Troy explosion: Expert says no state oversight was found for Oxford Center

It has only been a few days since the deadly explosion that killed a five-year-old in Troy. Though the community still grieves, experts say the Oxford Center, where the explosion happened, may have been operating a machine without any state oversight.

The backstory:

On Friday morning, units from the Troy fire and police departments responded to 165 Kirts Blvd in Troy around 8 a.m. following reports of an explosion.

A 5-year-old boy was killed after a hyperbaric chamber blew up inside the building. His mom, who was next to the chamber at the time, also suffered injuries to her arms.

The child was a resident of Royal Oak.

The machine is used to treat strokes, cancer, autism, and more.

What they're saying:

FOX 2 spoke with John Peters, who is the Executive Director of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society. They are tasked with accrediting facilities with hyperbaric chambers.

"Every facility, regardless of how good they say they are, it’s just having someone look over your shoulder that is independent," Peters said.

Meanwhile, the Oxford Center was not accredited. 

FOX 2 learned on Monday that there were no state or federal regulations on their facilities.

"Almost all of the hyperbaric accidents that have occurred around the world have a human error or human factor," Peters said.

The last death in one of them was in Florida in 2009, when a 4-year-old boy and his grandma were killed when static electricity inside caused it to erupt in flames. 

Two employees were charged with manslaughter.

The Oxford Center has two locations that have been temporarily closed. They boast that hyperbaric chamber therapy can help with more than 100 conditions and diseases, including autism, ADHD, anxiety, and cancer. Meanwhile, the accreditation list of conditions with scientific backing from the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society lists about 15 conditions, mostly having to do with skin wounds.

None of that accredited list are advertised on The Oxford Center’s main page for frequently treated issues, bringing into question its validity.

"If there is a lack of evidence, then patients are potentially being subjected to harm that they would not necessarily or normally been exposed to," Peters said.

What is a hyperbaric chamber?

Dig deeper:

A hyperbaric chamber is a pressurized room or container that has 100% oxygen inside.

According to the Mayo Clinic, patients undergoing hyperbaric oxygen therapy use it to treat a condition called decompression sickness, which occurs due to rapid drops in the surrounding pressure.

The goal is to get more oxygen to tissue in the body that's been damaged by disease or injury.

In a hyperbaric chamber, the air pressure is increased two to three times higher than normal air pressure. That way, the lungs can receive more oxygen, which can enhance new growth of blood vessels and boost one's immune system.

Because the chamber is pressurized, it can become highly combustible.

Meanwhile, there have only been four incidents throughout the world since 1996.

The backstory:

This tragedy is not the first time the Oxford Center has been under scrutiny, as a former employee at the facility, Casey Diskin, was just sentenced to four to seven years in prison, accused of stealing medical credentials and abusing children with autism.

The Oxford Center provided a statement reading in part:

"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."

The Source: FOX 2 spoke with John Peters, the Executive Director of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society and used information from previous stories. 

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Deadly Troy explosion: Medical expert weighs in on hyperbaric chamber safety

A community is heartbroken on Friday after a 5-year-old child was killed in an explosion at a medical center in Troy. Meanwhile, medical experts are saying it's rare for an incident like this to occur with these machines.

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