The family of a 76-year-old Tennessee man was awarded $2 million by a jury earlier this month after he was scalded by a hotel shower and succumbed to his injuries more than six months later.
Alex Chronis, a Knoxville-based food vendor, had been staying at an Econo Lodge in Erlanger, KY on a work trip in November 2021 when the incident occurred. According to the Knoxville News Sentinal, per legal documents filed in Kenton County Circuit Court, when Chronis stepped into the shower and turned it on, the water was more than 150 degrees.
Chronis was said to have immediately collapsed due to the temperatures, which can cause third-degree burns within seconds of exposure, and was rescued by two coworkers he was staying with who heard him screaming.
The lawsuit states that Chronis "almost immediately bombarded with scalding hot water," reports KansasCity.com, and that "the sudden pain and shock caused him to fall and, unable to climb out of the shower tub, [he] could only scream as an unbroken stream of 150-degree heat poured down on him."
Though he initially treated his burns with over-the-counter medication and proceeded to attend a local festival where he was selling food, Chronis later left to visit an emergency room. Against the advice of medical professionals, he eventually headed back to the festival to keep working.
However, within two days Chronis returned to the hospital, where he remained for the next five months, undergoing surgical grafting for the burn wounds and treatment for other unspecified medical issues. By April of 2022 was transferred to a Knoxville rehabilitation facility, but died a few short months later in June following a brief hospitalization when his condition didn't improve.
A Kenton County jury found on July 3 that the owner of the Econo Lodge, Sanjay Patel, "failed to exercise ordinary care in inspecting and maintaining" the hotel room "in a reasonably safe condition for the use of their guests." The family was awarded $1.3 million for medical expenses, $250,000 for pain and suffering, $16,000 for funeral costs, and $500,000 for punitive damages.
"The family feels that the jury was able to see the wrongful conduct by the defendant and the resulting horrendous injuries which Alex suffered," a lawyer for the family told the website Law&Crime. “His death was caused by complications from the serious scalding wounds that were so easily preventable had the hotel management simply had a procedure in place for their customer’s safety."
According to court documents, the verdict is subject to appeal.
