Troy hyperbaric chamber center's ex-employee says her warnings ignored before boy's death

FOX 2 - A former employee says she warned staff at the Oxford Center months before a hyperbaric chamber exploded — killing  5-year-old Thomas Cooper.

The backstory:

Tiffany Hosey testified in court on Monday, saying her safety concerns were ignored at the Oxford Center in Troy. Four staffers, including the CEO, are charged in connection with the deadly blast.

She worked there for nearly four years as a hyperbaric technician – among other side jobs within the center.

She testified for more than four and a half hours the prelim hearing wrapping up about an hour ago – in recess until Tuesday.

She told the court today she repeatedly warned the owner, Tamela Peterson, and safety director Jeffrey Mosteller, that patients were not being strapped with grounding bracelets.

Those straps she says, help prevent dangerous static sparks inside the chambers.

Hosey did confirm that Peterson, her daughter, and her parents used the hyperbaric chambers themselves, without the grounding bracelets.

Related:

• Oxford Center CEO's alleged texts about boy's hyperbaric chamber death
• Troy hyperbaric chamber was understaffed when explosion killed 5-year-old

Hosey says when she voiced her concerns, they did nothing about it. She says she expressed not feeling comfortable working in the chambers with those safety concerns and then, was let go.

But defense attorneys were quick to note that Hosey still kept working at the center despite her warnings about the lack of safety.

Attorney: "It is fair to say that you had quite a bit of knowledge regarding hyperbaric chambers outside of your specific work for Oxford, correct?"

"Correct," she said.

Attorney: "And despite everything else you learned you still went along with the management policy  of no patient grounding straps correct?"

"Unfortunately yes," she said.

Defense attorneys say Hosey never worked at the Troy office where the January explosion happened.

But Hosey testified she researched the Troy location and believed the safety protocols were the same at both centers.

Hosey said she didn’t report the concerns to any outside agencies.

She was the first witness called to the stand in this preliminary hearing.