A Tennessee man died after he was horrifically burned by a hotel shower that reached a scorching 150F. 

Alex Chronis, 76, tragically lost his life on June 19, 2022 after he took a shower at  Econo Lodge in Erlanger, Kentucky- about 10 miles across the border from Cincinnati, Ohio, on November 19, 2021. 

His family were awarded more than $2million for medical and funeral expenses on July 3 after filing a wrongful death lawsuit against Sanjay Patel, the owner of the budget hotel and Aspyn, LLC, which operated the Econo Lodge. 

Following the incident, Chronis, of Knoxville, Tennessee, was in and out of the hospital and had to undergo grueling procedures, according to the lawsuit. 

‘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,’ Jeff Blankenship, the family’s lawyer, told Law&Crime. 

According to the lawsuit, Chronis was on a business trip when the fateful incident took place. 

While sharing a hotel room with two co-workers Chronis decided to take a shower, where 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,’ the lawsuit said. 

His co-workers heard him fall to the ground and scream in pain before they rushed into the bathroom and helped him out. 

The following day, he and his co-workers attended a festival and sold food before he was taken to Miami Valley Hospital. 

Although doctor’s instructed him to rest after he was released, Chronis went back to work at the festival, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported. 

Two days later he checked back into the hospital and stayed there for about five months. 

Chronis underwent multiple grafting procedures for his intense burns and was also treated for unspecified medical conditions related to the incident, the lawsuit said. 

Chronis decided to take a shower, where 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.’ (pictured: The Econo Lodge in Erlanger, Kentucky)

In April 2022 he was stable enough to be transferred to a rehabilitation facility in Knoxville, but his health did not improve. 

By June 2022, after being transferred to another hospital, Chronis succumbed to his injuries and died. 

A Kenton Circuit County jury found that Patel and Aspyn, LLC, ‘failed to exercise ordinary care in inspecting and maintaining’ the hotel room ‘in a reasonably safe condition for the use of their guests.’

The jury also concluded that the plumbing company that installed the water heater at the hotel was not at fault. 

Though it is unclear exactly what caused the scorching hot water, the lawsuit said there was ‘failure to provide functioning faucets/fixtures.. and valves.’ 

The $2,037,545.30 award included $1,271,486.60 in medical bills, $250,000 for Chronis’ mental and physical pain, $500,000 in punitive damages and $16,058.73 for funeral costs. 

A private funeral service was held for Chronis, who was a brother, uncle, and great uncle. 

‘We thought the world of him and will so miss him,’ a loved one said on his obituary page.  

According to Arizona Department of Child Safety, most adults can endure third-degree burns when exposed to 150F water for just two seconds.  

The Tennessee government has agreed to begin scrubbing its sex offender registry of dozens of people who were convicted of prostitution while having HIV, reversing a practice that federal lawsuits have challenged as draconian and discriminatory.

For more than three decades, Tennessee’s “aggravated prostitution” laws have made prostitution a misdemeanor for most sex workers but a felony for those who are HIV-positive. Tennessee toughened penalties in 2010 by reclassifying prostitution with HIV as a “violent sexual offense” with a lifetime registration as a sex offender — even if protection is used.

At least 83 people are believed to be on Tennessee’s sex offender registry solely because of these laws, with most living in the Memphis area, where undercover police officers and prosecutors most often invoked the statute, commonly against Black and transgender women, according to a lawsuit filed last year by the American Civil Liberties Union and four women who were convicted of aggravated prostitution. The Department of Justice challenged the law in a separate suit earlier this year.

Both lawsuits argue that Tennessee law does not account for evolving science on the transmission of HIV or precautions that prevent its spread, like use of condoms. Both lawsuits also argue that labeling a person as a sex offender because of HIV unfairly limits where they can live and work and stops them from being alone with grandchildren or minor relatives.

“Tennessee’s Aggravated Prostitution statute is the only law in the nation that treats people living with HIV who engage in any sex work, even risk-free encounters, as ‘violent sex offenders’ subjected to lifetime registration,” the ACLU lawsuit states.

“That individuals living with HIV are treated so differently can only be understood as a remnant of the profoundly prejudiced early response to the AIDS epidemic.”

In a settlement agreement signed by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on July 15 and filed in both lawsuits on July 17, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said it would comb through the state’s sex offender registry to find those added solely because of aggravated prostitution convictions, then send letters alerting those people that they can make a written request to be removed. The language of the settlement suggests that people will need to request their removal from the registry, but the agency said in the agreement it will make “its best effort” to act on the requests “promptly in the order in which they are received.”

The Tennessee attorney general’s office, which represents the state in both the ACLU and DOJ lawsuits and approved the settlement agreement, said in an email statement it would “continue to defend Tennessee’s prohibition on aggravated prostitution.”

In an email statement, the ACLU celebrated the settlement as “one step toward remedying the harms by addressing the sex offender registration,” but said its work in Tennessee was not done because aggravated prostitution remained a felony charge that it would “fight to overturn.”

Molly Quinn, executive director of LGBTQ+ support organization OUTMemphis, another plaintiff in the ACLU lawsuit, said both organizations would help eligible people with the paperwork to get removed from the registry.

“We would not have agreed to settle if we did not feel like this was a process that would be extremely beneficial,” Quinn said. “But, we’re sad that the statute existed as long as it did and sad that there is any process at all that folks have to go through after living with this extraordinary burden of being on the sex offender registry for really an irrelevant reason.”

Michelle Anderson, a Memphis resident who is one of the plaintiffs in the ACLU lawsuit, said in court records that since being convicted of aggravated prostitution, the sex offender label has made it so difficult to find a home and a job that she was “unhoused for about a year” and has at times “felt she had no option but to continue to engage in sex work to survive.”

Like the other plaintiffs, Anderson said her conviction kept her minor relatives at a distance.

“Ms. Anderson has a nephew she loves, but she cannot have a close relationship with him,” the lawsuit states. “Even though Ms. Anderson’s convictions had nothing to do with children, she cannot legally be alone with her nephew.”

The Tennessee settlement comes months after state lawmakers softened the law so no one else should be added to the sex offender registry for aggravated prostitution. Lawmakers removed the registration requirement and made convictions eligible for expungement if the defendant testifies they were a victim of human trafficking.

State Sen. Page Walley (R-Savannah), who supported the original aggravated prostitution law passed in 1991 and co-sponsored the recent bill to amend it, said on the floor of the legislature that the changes do not prevent prosecutors from charging people with a felony for aggravated prostitution. Instead, he said, the amendments undo the 2010 law that put those who are convicted on the registry “along with pedophiles and rapists for a lifetime, with no recourse for removal.”

“Having stood, as I mentioned, in 1991 and passed this,” Walley said, “it is a particular gratifying moment for me to see how we continue to evolve and seek what’s just and what’s right and what’s best.”

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee election officials who sent letters last month to 14,375 registered voters asking them for proof of citizenship now say the recipients won’t be kicked off voting rolls if they don’t respond. The state clarified the position in a follow-up letter to all those didn’t respond to the first correspondence. Nearly 3,200 have provided evidence of U.S. citizenship, and more than 300 have requested to be removed from the voter rolls, according to the state elections office. Those on the original mailing list were chosen based on data from the state Department of Safety and Homeland Security, which has information about whether residents were U.S. citizens when they first interacted with that department.

The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation informed the state late last month of plans to sue in response to the letters and argued that election officials had to tell voters they wouldn’t lose their voter registration by ignoring the request for proof of citizenship. On Tuesday, the state confirmed officials sent a follow up letter designed to clear up any confusion, and blamed any misunderstandings on outside groups like the ACLU.

“The June 13 letter gave people the option to update their records,” Elections Coordinator Mark Goins wrote. “It did not threaten to remove a person from the voter list if a person does not respond to the June 13 letter. No one will be removed from a voting list for not responding to the June 13 letter.”

Tennessee’s secretary of state office has declined to release the names of people who received the June 13 letters, citing privacy exemptions. However, the office did provide recipients’ zip codes.

More than 1,200 letters were sent to zip code 37013, an area that encompasses Antioch, a south Nashville neighborhood with strong Black and brown populations. No other zip code received as many letters. The second highest area was also in south Nashville, which received 645 of the letters.

Seven went to individuals out of state.

The ACLU has argued that Tennessee’s actions violated the National Voter Registration Act, the Voting Rights Act and the 14th and 15th amendments. The organization alleges election officials created a list that illegally targeted “naturalized citizens in a discriminatory manner.”

The ACLU, representing 11 advocacy organizations, argued the state’s letters amounted to voter intimidation.

The June 13 letter warned voters it is illegal in Tennessee for noncitizens to vote and provided instructions on how to update voter information. It also said illegal voting is a felony and carries penalties of up to two years in prison.

Advocates have said the letters likely reached many immigrants who became naturalized citizens after they got their driver’s license or ID card through the state Department of Safety and Homeland Security. Tennessee driver’s licenses are renewed every eight years, potentially creating a long gap in time during which the state driver’s license agency may not be updated about a resident’s citizenship status.

The idea of widespread voting by noncitizens has spread through former President and current Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign rhetoric. The Republican-controlled U.S. House recently passed a proof-of-citizenship requirement for voter registration, despite research showing noncitizens illegally registering to vote or and casting ballots in federal elections is rare.

William Helou, an outside attorney representing the Tennessee secretary of state’s office, said the state’s original June 13 letters didn’t threaten to remove anyone from the voter rolls and didn’t violate federal law or constitutional rights. Rather, he called the letters “an appropriate action to fulfill (the election coordinator’s) obligations to ensure the integrity of elections in Tennessee.”

In the follow up letter to voters sent Tuesday, the state said naturalized citizens and other eligible voters are encouraged to vote.

Democrats have opposed the letters seeking proof of citizenship, noting that Tennessee remains among the lowest-ranked states in the U.S. for voter turnout.

The Associated Press sent an email to the ACLU Wednesday asking whether it may still file a legal challenge to the state’s correspondence.