A 5-year-old boy was killed and his mother was injured after the hyperbaric chamber he was in at a Troy, Michigan, medical facility exploded Friday.

A hyperbaric chamber is a hard, enclosed compartment with pressurized air that’s 100% oxygen, as opposed to the 21% found in normal air. The heightened amount of oxygen seeps into the body and accelerates healing, but is also combustible.

The chamber exploded at 7:54 a.m. The boy inside, hailing from nearby Royal Oak, was pronounced dead at the scene, the Troy Fire Department posted on social media.

A GoFundMe fundraiser identified the victim as Thomas Cooper, but didn’t say why he was receiving hyperbaric oxygen treatment at the Oxford Center.

His mother, who was near the chamber at the time of the blast, suffered injuries to her arms. Officials at the facility said the explosion was unprecedented and don’t know why a fire started inside the chamber.

“The safety and well-being of the children we serve is our highest priority. Nothing like this has happened in our more than 15 years of providing this type of therapy. We do not know why or how this happened and will participate in all of the investigations that now need to take place,” the Oxford Center told Detroit’s WDIV-TV.

The center says on its website that its treatments, including hyperbaric oxygen therapy, address attention deficit disorder, autism, AIDS/HIV, Alzheimer’s, cancer, cerebral palsy, COVID-19, depression, strokes, dementia and diabetes.

Many of the listed conditions are not included on the Food and Drug Administration’s list of conditions that can be treated by a hyperbaric chamber.

The victim’s family has retained an attorney from the Fieger Law firm in the aftermath of the explosion.

Fieger Law managing partner James Harrington said that “this incident raises serious concerns about hyperbaric chambers and the oversight and regulation of hyperbaric treatments,” according to the Detroit Free Press.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.