Hyperbaric chamber explosion: Former Oxford Center workers 'want this place shut down' | FOX 2 Detroit
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Hyperbaric chamber explosion: Former Oxford Center workers 'want this place shut down'

By Camille Amiri
Published  March 14, 2025 5:29pm EDT
Crime and Public Safety
FOX 2 Detroit

Hyperbaric chamber explosion: Ex-Oxford Center workers talk about explosion that killed boy

Candace McDonald and Taylor TyleTye both worked at the Oxford Center in Troy, quitting over safety concerns.

The Brief

    • Two former Oxford Center employees are speaking after a hyperbaric chamber explosion.
    • They say they quit over safety concerns, as an explosion there killed a 5-year-old boy.
    • "I want the family to get their justice," Taylor Tyle said.

FOX 2 - Two former employees of the Oxford Center are talking about the medical facility where a little boy died in a hyperbaric chamber explosion.

The owner and three employees charged in connection with the death of 5-year-old Thomas Cooper who died in the fire and whose mother was seriously injured on Jan. 31.

"It didn’t seem like they were following safety protocols," said Candace McDonald, former Oxford Center employee. "But I didn’t know enough to say anything at the time."

McDonald and Taylor Tyle both worked at the Oxford Center in Troy, quitting last week over safety concerns.

Oxford Center CEO Tamela Peterson and three of her employees are accused of ignoring safety protocols and tampering with the hyperbaric chamber for unfounded health treatments. In many cases the treatments were not covered by health insurance, causing parents of patients to pay by cash or check.

Cooper was being treated with the hyperbaric chamber for sleep apnea and ADHD.

"No one there was properly trained and in the end I left because I felt like I wasn’t trained enough with my coworkers and I didn’t feel safe there honestly," said McDonald.

McDonald now works for a different facility in close proximity to the Oxford Center.

"I was actually in the parking lot when the chamber exploded, so I kind of saw everything happening," she said. "I was kind of numb, shocked, sick to my stomach."

"The whole thing is all around really unsettling," Tyle said.

Related:

Investigators say they falsified records on the machines to avoid spending money on mandatory maintenance.

"I’ve been in this field for about a year and I feel like the priority has to be the kid and the safety," McDonald said. "I just feel like it was more about the money then it ever was about helping people."

The Oxford Center in Troy has been closed since the explosion. Meanwhile Peterson is  being held on a $2 million bond.

"I want the family to get their justice," Tyle said. "And I want this place to be shut down for good, so nothing like this has to happen again."

The Source: Information for this story was taken from a court arraignment and interviews with former Oxford Center workers.


 

Crime and Public SafetyTroyOakland County