Kentucky motel ordered to pay $2 million after guest dies from 150-degree shower

NBC news ^ | 7/18/24 | Susan Baek

[CFW]

The family of a 76-year-old Kentucky man was awarded over $2 million for his death from second- and third-degree burns suffered in a scalding hot motel shower where water temperatures reached at least 150 degrees Fahrenheit.

Court documents from the lawsuit alleged that Alex Chronis checked into the Econo Lodge in Erlanger, Kentucky, on Nov. 18, 2021. The next morning, he turned on the shower and was immediately struck by extremely hot water that knocked him to the floor while the water continued to burn him. The two people who were in the motel with Chronis heard his screams and removed him from the tub.

[snip]

The defense claimed Chronis didn't even stay at the motel, said Blankenship. Attorneys for the defense declined to comment, citing the pending appeal.

[Svartalfiar]

A decent motel or nice house should have a hot water circulator that keeps the hot water right at there all the time.

That works great for the main pipes, but you still have several feet at least from there to the spigot. The only way he physically could have gotten an "immediate scalding blast" is if someone else just stepped out of a hot shower before him.

[Svartalfiar]

The real story was that he could not tell he was being burned for two minutes because he was paralyzed and couldn't feel it.

So maybe not an idiot.

...And he never felt the water with any other body part? What person, doing anything water-related, soaks their feet without touching the water with their hand? And in a shower? Didn't get anything else wet to notice it was too hot?

And if you know you're paralyzed, and see steam condensate coming off anything, you'd probably think you might want to check the temp before sticking non-feeling easily-burner body parts in it...

[higgmeister]

It wasn’t a soak it was two minutes.