Oxymed director Malcolm Hooper convicted of two offences after man’s death
A man who couldn’t walk and had poor speech due to MS died after an alternative therapy, with a business director now convicted of two crimes.
The director of an oxygen therapy business has been convicted of criminal offences brought from the death of a man with multiple sclerosis after an oxygen chamber treatment.
Malcolm Hooper and business Oxymed were found guilty of some workplace safety offences, but not guilty of placing a person in danger of serious injury, by judge Amanda Fox in the County Court of Victoria on Tuesday.
Judge Fox did not read her reasons for verdict to the court.
After a lengthy judge-alone trial, she found Mr Hooper and Oxymed did not have adequate first aid and training on how to use the chamber.
On April 6, 2016, a man with multiple sclerosis and epilepsy died in hospital after becoming unconscious during an oxygen treatment in a hyperbaric chamber at Oxymed, on Chapel St in South Yarra.
Oxymed clients were placed into the sealed, pressurised hyperbaric chamber and given high concentrations of oxygen through a mask.
The method is used to treat decompression sickness, which happens when diving, and carbon monoxide poisoning.
Some believe it is also useful for a range of other conditions, including multiple sclerosis, but this has not been proven.
Craig Dawson – who could not walk, use his right arm or most of his left arm, and had poor eyesight and speech – went to the clinic for an oxygen treatment.
After becoming unconscious, he was rushed to the Alfred Hospital, where he died five days later without regaining consciousness.
Hooper and Oxymed were each found guilty on Tuesday of failing to ensure a comprehensive risk-assessment for each patient and failing to ensure workers had undergone adequate training in the safe operation of the chambers and in administering effective first aid.
They had pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that there was appropriate supervision of the occupants of hyperbaric chambers.
They were each found not guilty of two counts each of placing a person in danger of serious injury, and of failing to ensure appropriate communication
Oxymed was separately fined $63,000 last year for allegedly using advertising that promoted hyperbaric chambers as a treatment for the coronavirus, cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder and autism spectrum disorders.
After not paying the fine, it was taken to the Federal Court by the Therapeutic Goods Administration with the case ongoing.
Hooper and Oxymed will be sentenced by the County Court at a later date.