The Oxford Center’s Brighton location. March 11, 2025. Photo by Jon King.
The owner of a Metro Detroit medical facility and three of the center’s employees appeared in court Wednesday as an Oakland County judge set dates for preliminary exams to review evidence in a case where a 5-year-old boy died in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber explosion in which officials at the center stand accused of disregarding safety protocols.
Tamela Peterson, the CEO of Oxford Center, is charged with second-degree murder, which carries up to a life sentence. Oxford Center employees Jeffrey Alan Mosteller and Gary Marken also face the second-degree murder charge, with all three defendants having the alternative lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter should the court not deem second-degree muder appropriate in the case. Aleta Moffitt, another Oxford center employee is charged with involuntary manslaughter and falsifying medical records.
The dates for the preliminary exams are set for September 15 and 16 after Oakland County Judge Maureen McGinnis said Wednesday that there were additional motions attorneys would be filing that might require a few months to resolve.
The death of 5-year-old Thomas Cooper of Royal Oak was preventable, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, whose office is prosecuting the case, said back in March when her office charged staff members of the Oxford Center with murder and involuntary manslaughter.
Tamela Peterson, CEO of the Oxford Center in Troy, Michigan appears over Zoom for a probable cause conference in an Oakland County Court on May 28, 2025. | Photo: Anna Liz Nichols
Jeffrey Mosteller, employee of the Oxford Center in Troy, Michigan appears over Zoom for a probable cause conference in an Oakland County Court on May 28, 2025. | Photo: Anna Liz Nichols
Gary Marken,employee of the Oxford Center in Troy, Michigan appears over Zoom for a probable cause conference in an Oakland County Court on May 28, 2025. | Photo: Anna Liz Nichols
Aleta Moffitt, employee of the Oxford Center in Troy, Michigan appears over Zoom for a probable cause conference in an Oakland County Court on May 28, 2025. | Photo: Anna Liz Nichols
“Instead, deliberate negligence and a blatant disregard for safety cost a child his life,” Nessel said in a statement.
Cooper had received many in the hyperbaric oxygen chamber for ADHD and sleep apnea, attorney for the Cooper family James Harrington told WXYZ in February. But during the 36th treatment on Jan. 31, the chamber exploded with Cooper inside.
Cooper’s mother tried to save her child, but could not get him out of the chamber, Harrington said.
“Under no circumstances should anything like this ever happen, ever,” Harrington told WXYZ. “She was in the waiting room and was alerted that something was going wrong and rushed back, and he was engulfed in flames and she was trying to get him out and sustained significant burns to her arm.”
The Michigan Attorney General’s Office is arguing that employees of the Oxford Center showed complete disregard for patient safety, ignoring safety protocols for the highly sensitive environment hyperbaric oxygen chambers create, using chambers beyond the scope set by the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA.
Whereas the air people breathe everyday is 21% oxygen, the air inside a hyperbaric oxygen chamber is 100% oxygen and can help patients heal wounds or fight off infection, according to the FDA. Conditions the FDA approves usage of hyperbaric oxygen chambers include crush injuries, burns, severe infections and sudden vision loss, but neither of the conditions Harrington said Copper had been receiving treatment for.
The Oxford Center lists dozens of conditions hyperbaric oxygen chambers can be used for on the center’s website including autism, anxiety and attention deficit disorder, whereas FDA has only approved usage for limited conditions.
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