Director of Michigan Autism Center's Services Pleads Guilty To Practicing Without A License, Identity Theft, And Witness Intimidation

https://www.michigan.gov/ag/news/press-releases/2024/12/03/oakland-county-woman-sentenced-to-prison-for-posing-as-health-professional-witness-intimidation

Oakland County Woman Sentenced to Prison for Posing as Health Professional, Witness Intimidation
By Danny Wimmer - December 3, 2024

LANSING – Today, Kimberly Casey Coden, 38, of Huntington Woods, was sentenced by Judge L. Suzanne Geddis in the 44th Circuit Court in Livingston County for multiple felonies related to impersonating a health care professional and witness intimidation, announced Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. Coden, who pled guilty in August, was sentenced to:

4-6 years’ incarceration for six counts of Unauthorized Practice of a Health Profession;
4-7.5 years’ incarceration for two counts of Identity Theft; and
4-6 years’ incarceration for one count of Bribing, Intimidating a Witness.

Coden was employed as a director of services at Oxford Recovery Center, a facility with locations in Brighton and Troy, which provides services to children diagnosed with Autism. She presented herself as a Board-Certified Behavioral Analyst (BCBA) when she was not licensed by the State of Michigan and did not possess the requisite educational background. Coden also utilized the certification number of a properly board-certified BCBA to obtain employment at Centria Health Care for several months in 2016 and the Positive Behavior Supports Corporation from 2017 to 2018, in addition to the Oxford Recovery Center, where she was employed from 2018 to 2021. Coden also intimidated a witness to this matter via text messages in an effort to prevent the witness from testifying against her.

“Falsifying credentials to gain access to a highly vulnerable population is unethical and reprehensible,” said Nessel. “I hope this sentence serves as a warning for others that we take the proper training, qualifications, and licensing requirements very seriously and there are real consequences for those who deliberately shirk them.”

The Attorney General’s Health Care Fraud Division (HCFD) handled this case for the Department. The HCFD is the federally certified Medicaid Fraud Control Unit for Michigan and it receives 75% of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant award totaling $5,703,460.00 for the fiscal year 2025. The remaining 25% percent, totaling $1,901,152.00, is funded by the State of Michigan.

Kimberly Coden's erstwhile Oxford Center in Troy just experienced an "explosion" of their hyperbaric chamber, killing a 5 year old patient:

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/oakland/2025/01/31/boy-dies-explosion-hyperbaric-chamber-troy-medical-facility/78085783007/

Boy dies in explosion of hyperbaric chamber at Troy medical facility
By Andrea May Sahouri & Kristen Jordan Shamus - January 31, 2025

A 5-year-old boy from Royal Oak died Friday morning during an explosion of a hyperbaric chamber at a Troy medical center, police said.

The medical facility, The Oxford Center, is located at 165 Kirts Boulevard. The explosion happened shortly before 8 a.m. and police said the boy was found dead inside the chamber. His mother, who was injured, was there with him at the facility, officials said.

The Oxford Center's website says that it provides therapy for children with numerous conditions, like autism, cancers, ADHD, autoimmune diseases, and a slew of others.

Troy Fire Lt. Keith Young said investigators do not yet know what exactly caused the explosion, but concentrated oxygen and the pressure used in hyperbaric chambers are fuel for fire.

In a statement from The Oxford Center, spokesman Andrew Kistner wrote in an email that the cause of the explosion is unknown and that Friday was an "exceptionally difficult day for all of us."

"As law enforcement officials have shared, at our location in Troy, Michigan this morning, a fire started inside of a hyperbaric oxygen chamber. The child being treated in that chamber did not survive and the child’s mother was injured," the statement reads.

"The safety and wellbeing 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."

Troy Police Lt. Ben Hancock said the mother was standing right next to the chamber when it exploded and suffered injures to her arms.

He described the explosion as a "very sad incident".

Young said the state oversees hyperbaric medical chambers.

For decades, hyperbaric oxygen therapy has been used to relieve the effects of decompression sickness for scuba divers, to help firefighters, miners and others who have carbon monoxide poisoning, to improve the success of skin grafts and to speed up healing of infections, such as diabetic foot ulcers and gangrene, and in treatment of crush injuries, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Here’s how it works: People enter into either a monoplace chamber, which is built for one person, or a mulitplace chamber, which can fit two or more people.

In a monoplace chamber, a person lies down in a long, plastic tube that resembles an MRI machine. In a multiplace chamber, people breathe through masks or hoods.

Pure oxygen is pumped into a pressurized chamber, mask or hood and people inside breathe in the concentrated oxygen, which enters the bloodstream and tissues to boost healing and recovery from injury and helps the body fight infections.

Johns Hopkins Medicine reports that each session can last from 45 minutes to five hours, depending on the reason for the treatment.

The Oxford Center is among other alternative medical centers or medical spas who, in recent years, have offered hyperbaric oxygen therapy for conditions that are not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, such as autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, sports injuries, COVID-19, depression, alopecia, HIV/AIDS, strokes, migraine headaches, and as an anti-aging treatment, the Cleveland Clinic reports.

The Oxford Center, which has locations in Brighton and Troy, has generated controversy. In August, the facility's former director Kimberly Coden pleaded guilty to nine charges after officials with Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office said she used false credentials to treat children with autism.

Troy Police Department vehicles are parked outside the Oxford Center in Troy on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025.
She falsely presented herself as a board-certified behavioral analyst without being licensed and without the proper education and used an actual analyst’s certification to get jobs within the health sector, officials said. And she’d also used professional business cards, verbal statements, written documents and presented university degrees she allegedly didn’t earn.

Coden also tried to intimidate a witness through text messages to keep them from testifying against her, officials said.

When Coden pleaded guilty, her lawyer said her client was "really, truly remorseful."

Hazards of hyperbaric chambers

A study was published in the medical journal Lancet reviewing hyperbaric chamber fires over more than 70 years, from 1923 to 1996, and found that 77 people died in 35 fires. Before 1980, most of the fires were caused by electrical ignition. But since then, they were sparked by something that was carried into the hyperbaric chamber.

Officials in Friday's explosion at the Oxford Center said they don't know whether someone brought something into the chamber before it exploded, but acknowledged the chambers create an environment that is "extremely combustible."

The National Fire Protection Association has written about the distinct hazards associated with hyperbaric facilities, including the increased pressure and presence of elevated oxygen levels.

In a Aug. 2021 blog post from the National Fire Protection Association, Brian O’Connor wrote:

"While oxygen itself is not flammable, it is an oxidizer that supports combustion and can increase the flammability of other materials," Brian O’Connor of the association wrote in Aug. 2021, including flame-resistant fabrics and materials.

“This means that care must be taken to prevent any means of ignition from entering the oxygen-enriched environment, since the conditions exist for a fire to grow rapidly."

O’Connor wrote that another fire safety problem with hyperbaric chamber facilities is that it’s difficult to evacuate the chamber when fires do occur.

“Since these chambers are pressurized, they must undergo a decompression process before occupants can safely exit. The process is required to take no more than six minutes for (multiplace) chambers and two minutes for (monoplace chambers) when returning from three times standard atmospheric pressure,” he wrote.

"These facts, he said, make it vital to ensure that any facility that uses a hyperbaric chamber adhere to strict fire safety regulations, such as allowing only certain fabrics to be worn and restricting other flammable materials to be brought inside the chamber, installing specialty sprinkler systems, and in some cases, independently supplied handlines."

Hyperbaric means high pressure.  Pure oxygen at hyperbaric pressures transforms many substances which are not flammable in our 80% nitrogen, 14.7 psi atmosphere into highly inflammable, even explosive, substances.  ASTM manual MNL36-2ND-EB, Safe Use of Oxygen and Oxygen Systems: Handbook for Design, Operation, and Maintenance, is the gold standard for oxygen safety.  Someone did not follow its recommendations.

Fallout from the hyperbaric oxygen chamber explosion:

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/oakland/2025/03/11/child-hyperbaric-chamber-death-ceo-safety-director-charged/82243071007/

CEO, safety director charged with 2nd-degree murder in child's hyperbaric chamber death
By Kristen Jordan Shamus & Andrea May Sahouri - March 11, 2025

*   Tamela Peterson, CEO and founder of the Oxford Center in Troy, and Jeffrey Alan Mosteller, its safety director and director of training, have been charged in the Jan. 31 death.
*   Two other people were arrested Monday and also are expected to be arraigned Tuesday on charges in the child's death.
*   State Attorney General Dana Nessel's office plans for an 11:30 a.m. news conference Tuesday about the charges.

The CEO and the safety director of the Oxford Center in Troy are expected to be arraigned Tuesday afternoon on charges of second degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in the death of a 5-year-old boy inside a hyperbaric oxygen chamber in Troy.

Online court records from 52-4 District Court in Troy show that Tamela Peterson, CEO of the center, and Jeffrey Alan Mosteller, its safety director and director of training, have been charged in the Jan. 31 death of Thomas Cooper, 5, of Royal Oak.

Peterson's attorney, Gerald J. Gleeson II, declined to comment until after his client's Tuesday afternoon arraignment. No attorney was listed on court documents for Mosteller.

A Troy Police Department officer walks outside the Oxford Center in Troy on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025.
Two other people were arrested Monday and also are expected to be charged in the child's death, Lt. Ben Hancock of the Troy Police Department said Monday evening.

One of those is Gary Marken, who is on the Oxford Center's advisory board and is listed on the center's website as its director of operations. He also was charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, online court records show. Raymond Cassar, an attorney listed for Marken, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Oxford Center, which has locations in Brighton and in Troy, issued a statement to the Free Press late Monday, calling the timing of the charges "surprising."

"After cooperating with multiple investigations starting immediately after the tragic accident in January, we are disappointed to see charges filed," the statement said.

"The timing of these charges is surprising, as the typical protocol after a fire-related accident has not yet been completed. There are still outstanding questions about how this occurred. Yet, the Attorney General’s office proceeded to pursue charges without those answers."

State Attorney General Dana Nessel's office plans for an 11:30 a.m. news conference Tuesday.

James Harrington, managing partner at Fieger Law, which is representing the family, told the Free Press in a February interview that Thomas' parents were unaware of the danger their son faced when he climbed inside the hyperbaric oxygen chamber on the last day of January at the Oxford Center.

The boy, described by his family as curious, energetic and thoughtful, was in the midst of his 36th hyperbaric oxygen therapy treatment for ADHD and sleep apnea when the pressurized chamber burst into flames. Thomas was trapped inside, Harrington said.

Thomas Cooper, age 5, died at The Oxford Center in Troy after a hyperbaric chamber he was in exploded.
Thomas' mother, Annie Cooper, raced from a nearby waiting area to his side, but couldn't get Thomas out of the sealed, tube-like chamber, Harrington said.

She was left to watch in horror as her son burned to death inside the chamber, which was full of pure oxygen. Annie Cooper suffered third-degree burns to her arms, but the psychological trauma was far worse, Harrington said.

"It's literally the worst thing that any parent could (experience)," he said. "And poor Thomas ... his last moments of life were being engulfed in flames and perishing in front of his mother. He was certainly aware of what was going on.

"An event like this should never, ever, ever happen," he said.

The Oxford Center's website says that Peterson, 58, founded the center after trying hyperbaric oxygen therapy to help her daughter, who lost the ability to walk or talk following an infection with viral encephalitis. The website says the treatment "saved her daughter's life." The goal of the center is to make alternative therapies financially accessible to families, she wrote.

The center's website suggests Mosteller, 64, "has worked in every aspect of hyperbaric medicine," in his 36-year career. In a recorded podcast episode, he spoke of "all of the amazing possibilities that Hyperbarics offers."

Marken, 65, described himself in a recorded podcast interview as a foster parent and grandfather of seven, and said he works to help men overcome mental health struggles as they age.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the air inside a hyperbaric chamber is made up of 100% pure oxygen in a pressurized environment. That increased air pressure helps a person's lungs get more oxygen to tissues throughout the body, which can help it heal and fight certain infections.

Treatments have been shown to relieve decompression sickness for scuba divers, to help firefighters, miners and others recover from carbon monoxide poisoning, to improve the success of skin grafts and to speed up the healing of infections, such as diabetic foot ulcers and gangrene, and in treatment of crush injuries.

The FDA also has authorized hyperbaric oxygen therapy to treat severe anemia, radiation injuries and some types of complete and sudden hearing and vision loss.

But the Oxford Center is among the alternative medical centers or medical spas that, in recent years, have offered hyperbaric oxygen therapy for conditions that are not FDA approved, such as autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, sports injuries, COVID-19, depression, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, strokes, migraine headaches and as an anti-aging treatment.

Thomas Cooper's ADHD and sleep apnea are not among the medical conditions that are FDA approved for treatment with hyperbaric oxygen.

Trial underway.  None of these 'experts' appear to be aware of the established industry standards for hyperbaric facilities:

ASTM manual MNL36-2ND-EB, Safe Use of Oxygen and Oxygen Systems: Handbook for Design, Operation, and Maintenance.

It explains these ASTM National Standards:

ASTM G128: Standard Guide for Control of Hazards and Risks in Oxygen Enriched Systems

ASTM G88: Standard Guide for Designing Systems for Oxygen Service

ASTM G4: Standards Technology Training course Controlling Fire Hazards in Oxygen Handling Systems

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/oakland-county/2025/12/01/testimony-resumes-for-4-accused-of-murder-in-troy-hyperbaric-chamber-explosion/87484953007/

Troy facility where hyperbaric chamber exploded not operating under industry standards: expert
By Kara Berg - December 1, 2025

Troy — An expert in hyperbaric oxygen chambers testified Monday that the use of grounding straps in single-person chambers is essential, as the risk of a fire and the intensity of the burn in small chambers is higher.

Prosecutors have alleged that the Oxford Center, a medical facility where 5-year-old Thomas Cooper was receiving treatment in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber in January when it exploded, killing him, did not use a grounding strap during their treatments.

Testifying in Troy's 52-4 District Court, Andrew Melnyczenko, the technical and safety director of the hyperbaric and altitude medicine program at the Mayo Clinic, said grounding straps — a wrist strap that a patient wears that connects them to the chamber to get rid of any static electricity that may develop — are a critical safety component in hyperbaric chambers.

Melnyczenko, who did his own review of Thomas’s treatment at the Oxford Center and listened to some prior testimony, said it did not appear the center was operating under industry standards and using a grounding strap. He said he can’t think of any reasons why a patient shouldn’t be grounded.

Tamela Peterson, the owner and CEO of the Oxford Center, is charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, along with safety director Jeffrey Mollester and primary manager Gary Marken, in connection with Thomas's death. The hyperbaric chamber's operator, Aleta Moffitt, is charged with involuntary manslaughter charge and intentionally placing false information on a medical record.

Melnyczenko is one of several witnesses who have testified as part of the preliminary examination for the four defendants, where prosecutors present evidence to prove to District Judge Maureen McGinnis that there is probable cause for the cases to go to trial. Monday marked the third day of testimony in the exam, which is expected to run through Wednesday.

Melnyczenko, like another expert who testified in September, said Thomas's knee or leg may have touched the mattress in the chamber, possibly causing static electricity to build up and lead to the spark that started the blaze.

Moffitt’s attorney, Alona Sharon, tried to have Melnyczenko’s testimony tossed out because he had spoken to another expert witness about his testimony.

Melnyczenko said he had spoken to the other expert about his experience testifying and had learned about his testimony from the media. Sharon said prosecutors should have instructed Melnyczenko that he could not do this.

But McGinnis said Melnyczenko didn’t seek out or discuss information about the other witness’s testimony, and the answers he provided in court Monday didn’t stray from his original opinion and report.

The second witness Monday, Majid Mashayekh, the vice president of quality assurance and regulatory affairs at Sechrist Industries, which makes the hyperbaric chambers, said Sechrist sent the Oxford Center notice in November 2022 that chamber that exploded had more than the allowed number of cycles done in it and Sechrist would not be able to service it any longer.

Mashayekh said this essentially was over the lifetime of the machine, though he noted the explosion had nothing to do with an equipment malfunction.

Thomas's family is also suing the Oxford Center, its owner and three employees for more than $100 million for the fire that killed him. The lawsuit accuses the Oxford Center of "conducting human experiments" on Thomas and other clients by using the hyperbaric chamber for treatment it hadn't been approved for by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

 Oxford Recovery Center's Brighton office charged with fraudulent healthcare billing by AG Nessel.  This appears to be independent of the Troy hyperbaric chamber explosion, but may have been discovered during the subsequent  investigation:

https://www.michigan.gov/ag/news/press-releases/2026/01/20/attorney-general-nessel-charges-former-ceo-of-oxford-recovery

Attorney General Nessel Charges Former CEO of Oxford Recovery Center with Nine Counts of Health Care Fraud – False Claims
By Danny Wimmer - January 20, 2026

LANSING – Today, Tamela Peterson, 59, of Brighton, was arraigned before Magistrate Jerry Sherwood of the 53rd District Court in Howell on nine counts of Health Care Fraud – False Claim, announced Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. Each charge is a felony punishable by a four-year maximum term of incarceration and/or a fine of $50,000.

Tamela Peterson was the owner and CEO for The Oxford Recovery Center in Brighton and The Oxford Center in Troy; both locations treated a wide range of patients with issues from addiction to mental health, including a large population of children diagnosed with autism in their Applied Behavioral Analysis program. It is alleged that Peterson had knowledge of and was the direct beneficiary of fraudulent health care claim practices, including billing for services not rendered. The Attorney General’s investigation into these alleged practices began in September 2022 upon complaints from former providers and patients.

“Filing false claims impacts not only patients and providers, but also contributes to increased costs of healthcare and medical insurance for everybody,” said Nessel. “Health care fraud undermines the trust between patients and providers and patients’ notions of confidentiality and care. My office will continue to hold accountable those who take advantage of their practice for their own financial benefit.”

Peterson was granted a $10,000 personal recognizance bond. She is next due in court at 8 a.m. on January 27 for a Probable Cause Conference in the 53rd District Court before Judge Shauna Murphy. The preliminary exam is scheduled for February 3rd.

The Attorney General’s Health Care Fraud Division (HCFD) handled this fraud case for the Department. The HCFD is the federally certified Medicaid Fraud Control Unit for Michigan and it receives 75% of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant award totaling $5,517,524.00 for the fiscal year 2026. The remaining 25% percent, totaling $1,839,170.00, is funded by the State of Michigan.