Jeffrey Mosteller’s job title at the Oxford Center was safety director. On Monday, he left an Oakland County courtroom with a prison sentence for the death of a 5-year-old boy.
Thomas Cooper died Jan. 31, 2025, when a hyperbaric oxygen chamber caught fire while he was receiving treatment at the Troy, Michigan, facility.
Mosteller pleaded no contest in July to involuntary manslaughter. Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Kwamé Rowe sentenced him Aug. 31 to 19 months to 15 years in prison under the plea agreement.
What happened inside the chamber led prosecutors and the judge back to a basic safety precaution that was not being used.
A Missing Precaution
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The Oxford Center was not using grounding wrist straps during hyperbaric treatments, according to testimony and reporting from the criminal case.
The straps are designed to dissipate static electricity. That is particularly important inside an oxygen-rich environment, where a spark can create a serious fire hazard.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration specifically advises facilities using hyperbaric oxygen devices to follow fire-prevention measures and make sure proper grounding equipment is used.
During Mosteller’s sentencing, Rowe focused on his failure to insist on the precaution.
“This is arrogance,” the judge said, according to CBS News Detroit.
Rowe said Mosteller had acted as though he knew better than the national fire code, the chamber manufacturer’s manual and his own training and experience.
“It was incumbent upon you to say something, to say these grounding straps are needed,” Rowe said, according to WXYZ reporting carried by Live 5 News.
Years Without Them
The decision not to use the straps predated Thomas’ death by years.
A former Oxford Center employee testified during earlier proceedings that the Troy facility stopped using grounding wrist straps in 2017, Local 4 reported.
When the remaining defendants were ordered to stand trial in February, a district judge said prosecutors had presented evidence that Mosteller and other center leaders actively participated in enforcing a rule that patients could not wear the straps.
The Michigan Attorney General’s Office has said both the National Fire Protection Association and the chamber manufacturer published safety protocols for treatment.
Mosteller deliberately discarded those protocols and ignored precautions in place at the time of Thomas’ death, according to the Michigan Attorney General’s Office.
Assistant Attorney General Chris Kessel told the sentencing court that Mosteller had been part of a decision to disregard the guidance of doctors, scientists, engineers and safety experts.
Mosteller’s attorney, Alona Sharon, said the center had stopped using the straps before Mosteller arrived.
She also acknowledged that he failed to correct the practice.
Why Thomas Was There
Thomas had been receiving hyperbaric oxygen therapy for symptoms related to ADHD, sleep problems and his overall health.
A federal court opinion filed in a separate insurance dispute says the Oxford Center sold hyperbaric treatment plans for more than 100 conditions. Thomas’ December 2024 intake listed goals including ADHD symptoms, hyperactivity and sleep.
The opinion states that hyperbaric oxygen therapy was not FDA-approved to treat those conditions.
Earlier reporting from FOX 2 Detroit said Thomas’ family paid about $8,000 for a package of 40 treatments.
On Jan. 31, Thomas was inside the pressurized chamber with his mother nearby when fire broke out.
His mother tried to reach him and suffered burns herself, according to earlier reporting on the case.
Thomas died inside the chamber.
The First Sentence
Mosteller was originally charged with second-degree murder, which can carry a life sentence in Michigan, or alternatively involuntary manslaughter.
He pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter on July 21. The murder charge was dismissed as part of the agreement, and prosecutors agreed to the 19-month-to-15-year prison term that Rowe later imposed.
The sentence does not mean Mosteller will automatically be released after 19 months. That is the minimum term of the indeterminate sentence; 15 years is the maximum.
Mosteller is the first of four Oxford Center defendants charged in Thomas’ death to complete the criminal case against him.
Owner and CEO Tamela Peterson, manager Gary Marken and chamber operator Aleta Moffitt still have criminal cases pending, according to the Michigan Attorney General’s Office. The charges against them remain allegations unless and until they are proven guilty.
This is heart breaking.