The family of a 76-year-old Tennessee man who died after being scalded by 150-degree water from a shower will receive a $2 million wrongful death award. A jury awarded Alex Chronis’ family a judgment for medical and funeral expenses, as well as agony and suffering, in a case against Sanjay Patel, the proprietor of an Econo Lodge in Erlanger, Kentucky, about 10 miles southwest of Cincinnati, Ohio.
“The family feels that the jury was able to see the wrongful conduct by the defendant and the resulting horrendous injuries which Alex suffered,” Jeff Blankenship, a family lawyer, told Law&Crime in an email on Friday. “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.”
The incident occurred on November 19, 2021, according to the lawsuit.
During a business trip, Chronis shared a room with two food vendor coworkers. When Chronis entered the shower that morning and turned on the water, he was “almost immediately bombarded with scalding hot water which knocked him to the floor of the shower tub where the water continued to scald him,” according to the lawsuit.
Chronis’ two coworkers heard him fall and cry and ran into the bathroom to help him out.
Despite being severely burned, he attended a food festival, was hospitalized, and was later released. The Cincinnati Enquirer said that despite physicians’ orders, he returned to work at the festival.
He spent months in hospitals, underwent various medical treatments, and suffered severe suffering before succumbing to his injuries and dying on June 19, 2022, according to the lawsuit Lawandcrime Staed.
Chronis’ family filed a lawsuit the same year.
McClatchy News reported that Patel’s lawyer did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
