Kentucky Motel Must Pay Over $2M After Man Fatally Suffers From 150-Degree Shower Burns

Econo Lodge Motel must pay the estate of Alex Chronis a total of $2.06 million after the 76-year-old man died after sustaining third-degree burns after shower at the motel

A Kentucky motel has been ordered to pay more than $2 million to the family of a man who died after suffering severe burns after taking a 150-degree shower.

According to Business Insider, the Econo Lodge Motel in Erlanger, Kentucky has to pay the family of Alex Chronis a total of $2.06 million after the 76-year-old man sustained third-degree burns after taking a shower at the motel. A jury awarded the estate a judgment of $1.3 million to cover medical expenses, $250,000 for pain and suffering, $16,000 for funeral costs, and $500,000 for punitive damages.

The estate originally filed the lawsuit in October 2022 in Kentucky’s Kenton County Circuit Court for $7 million in damages.

The lawsuit said the water temperature exceeded 150 degrees Fahrenheit.

The incident took place on November 19, 2021, a day after Chronis checked into the Econo Lodge. According to the lawsuit, he took a shower and 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.”

He died of his injuries on June 19, 2022, after having numerous medical procedures and being in the hospital for over five months, where he had surgical grafting for his wounds. He ended up in a rehabilitation facility before re-entering another hospital in June 2022 before dying from his injuries.

NBC News reported that the attorney for Chronis’ family, Jeffrey Blankenship spoke to the media outlet after the judgment was announced.

“He had to go through skin grafting because he had deep-tissue second-and third-degree burns from the scalding temperature of the shower at the hotel.”

Chronis had no children and wasn’t married, but his niece filed a lawsuit against the motel on his behalf.

The 76-year-old man was at the motel with his nephew, who took pictures of the aftermath of the scalding shower. The photographs revealed severely damaged and discolored patches of skin all over Chronis’ legs.