BELIEVE IT OR NOT, AUTHORITIES SAY A MICHIGAN SAFETY DIRECTOR FAILED TO ENSURE REQUIRED SAFETY RULES BEFORE A FIVE-YEAR-OLD BOY BURNED ALIVE IN AN OXYGEN CHAMBER… AND HE HAS NOW BEEN SENTENCED TO UP TO FIFTEEN YEARS IN PRISON.
On Jan. 31, 2025, five-year-old Thomas Cooper died at the Oxford Center in Troy, Michigan.
The child was inside a hyperbaric oxygen chamber when the unit erupted into flames.
Police said a single static spark triggered a fireball within seconds.
Thomas burned alive inside the chamber.
His mother desperately tried to free him.
She suffered burns to her own hands and arms in the process.
Investigators said Thomas was not wearing a required grounding wrist strap.
That strap could have prevented the static spark, according to investigators.
Jeffrey Mosteller was the medical facility’s safety director.
Mosteller is 66 years old.
Prosecutors subsequently charged Mosteller in connection with the fatal fire.
He was originally charged with second-degree murder.
Then Mosteller pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter.
In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dropped the second-degree murder charge.
The safety director has now been sentenced to 19 months to 15 years in prison.
At sentencing, Judge Kwamé L. Rowe addressed the safety director’s conduct.
Rowe said Mosteller ignored national fire codes.
The judge said Mosteller also ignored the chamber manufacturer’s operating manual.
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Mosteller ignored his own training, according to the judge.
“If those grounding safety straps were used, young Mr. Cooper would not have burned alive inside a hyperbaric chamber,” the judge said.
Rowe said he did not believe Mosteller intended to kill Thomas.
Yet the judge concluded that Mosteller’s actions created circumstances where death was a foreseeable result.
Mosteller’s attorney described what happened as a “horrific mistake.”
The attorney emphasized that the 66-year-old had no previous criminal history.
But prosecutors described the consequences much differently.
Prosecutors described a 5-year-old child whose life had barely begun burned alive while his mother watched.
And now the person responsible for safety could become eligible for release after serving a minimum of 19 months.
Mosteller is the first of four Oxford Center employees criminally charged in connection with Thomas’ death.
Three other staff members continue to face prosecution.
CEO Tamela Peterson still faces second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter charges.
Operations manager Gary Marken still faces second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter charges.
Chamber operator Aleta Harward Moffitt faces involuntary manslaughter.
Moffitt also faces a charge alleging false information was intentionally placed in a medical record.
Those defendants have not been convicted based on the information currently available.
Peterson has not been convicted.
Marken has not been convicted.
Moffitt has not been convicted.
The charges are allegations and have not been proven in court.
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