A Katrina refugee who resettled in Texas following the flooding of New Orleans is suing a Manhattan hotel for $100 million, after she was nearly burnt to death in her room's shower. Ethel Tropez, a 79-year-old woman who had to resettle in Live Oak, TX after Katrina, was visiting NYC and staying at the Hotel Chandler on 31st St., near 5th Ave.
She claims that while visiting the Manhattan with her daughter, she turned on the water in her room's shower and was blasted by excruciatingly hot water and fainted. By the time her daughter returned, Tropez had been subjected to the scalding spray for 30 minutes.
The extent of her burns required prolonged hospital stays and multiple skin grafts to repair the third degree burns that Tropez suffered in the shower stall. Her daughter says that her mother still has difficulty walking and continues to seek medical treatment back in Texas.
A sharp-eyed commenter at Daily Intel notes that the General Manager of the Hotel Chandler is Simon van Kempen, the husband of one of the Real Housewives of New York City, Alex McCord.
