A fire started inside an oxygen-rich hyperbaric chamber at a Michigan medical center on Friday, causing it to explode, killing a 5-year-old boy who was inside receiving treatment, officials said.
Emergency personnel arrived at the Oxford Center in Troy, Mich., which is about 30 minutes north of Detroit, around 8 a.m., and found the boy, of Royal Oak, Mich., dead inside the wreckage of the hyperbaric chamber, Lt. Ben Hancock with the Troy Police Department, said at a news conference.
What treatment the boy was receiving inside the chamber and what caused the fire that led to the explosion were not immediately clear. Officials said an investigation was ongoing.
“This is very uncommon, so we are not sure what led up to it,” said Lt. Keith Young of the Troy Fire Department. “I’ve been with the department for 10 years and we’ve never responded to anything like this.”
The Oxford Center said in a statement that a fire started inside the chamber. The fire department said that a hyperbaric chamber has 100 percent oxygen, which “can make it extremely combustible.”
The boy’s mother was standing near the chamber when it exploded, and her arms were injured, Lieutenant Hancock said.
The explosion caused a fire in the medical center that was extinguished within minutes with no extensive damage, Lieutenant Young said. The center will be closed until further notice.
“This is an exceptionally difficult day for all of us,” the Oxford Center said.
The center, which was founded in 2008, provides therapy to patients through a variety of services, including hyperbaric chambers and neurofeedback brain therapy, according to its website.
The inside of a hyperbaric chamber — a large glass tube that resembles a sleeping pod from a science-fiction movie — has two to three times higher air pressure than normal, according to the Mayo Clinic’s website.
The chambers can provide lifesaving treatment for people with conditions such as air bubbles in their blood vessels or decompression sickness, also known as the bends.
The high pressure, together with the elevated oxygen levels — about 100 percent oxygen, compared with about 21 percent in the air that humans normally breathe — can also provide therapeutic advantages.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy can enhance “the growth of new blood vessels and tissues” and support “immune system activity,” according to the Mayo Clinic. But its website also says that oxygen-rich environments can “increase the risk of fires,” and that “certified programs that provide hyperbaric oxygen therapy must follow guidelines to prevent fires.”