Stavros Florosis seeking compensation after suffering a gruesome injury.
Nearly four months after theSurvivor Greececontestantlost his legin a boat accident during the show’s production, he sued the show for $100 million, claiming conditions of filming led to his injuries, according to the lawsuit obtained by E! News Sept. 3.
While filming in the Dominican Republic in May, Stavros, 22, and fellow contestantEmmanouil Malliaroswere spearfishing in the open ocean for food when a boat carrying approximately 20 tourists entered the area, per the lawsuit. After noticing the boat, Malliaros allegedly yelled out to warn Stavros to get out of the way.
Despite Stavros’ attempt to dodge the boat, “the offending vessel’s propellers struck both of [his] legs. The impact severed [Stavros’] left leg completely—his left leg was never recovered from the water—and severely injured his right leg,” per the suit.
According to the filing, contestants were “required, incentivized, and expected” to spearfish in “open ocean waters as a core and mandatory element of the game and its televised format” since the premise of the show requires that contestants be given “minimal rationed food” and are expected to “supplement their sustenance through fishing and foraging.”
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However, contestants were directed to hunt for their food in “an area of very heavy commercial and tourist boat traffic” and production “did not establish any marked, roped-off, buoyed, or otherwise protected safe zone from local boat traffic within which cast members could safely fish or free-dive,” per the lawsuit.
Furthermore, because phones were taken away from contestants and they couldn’t “independently summon help or otherwise protect themselves in the event of an emergency,” the lawsuit states that the production had a heightened “duty” to “supervise, protect, and rescue cast members.”
Yet, the filing said that the show did not provide “any safety personnel, safety boats, spotters, or other measures to warn approaching boats away from the area where cast members were fishing,” and that production “knew, or in the exercise of reasonable care should have known, of the heavy and dangerous boat traffic in this area and of the risk it posed to cast members fishing and diving there, and nonetheless failed to take any corrective action.”
Following the incident, Stavros was transported to Miami for medical care and remained hospitalized for 61 days, where he “underwent multiple surgical procedures, including procedures related to the traumatic amputation of his left leg and the surgical repair and reconstruction of his severely injured right leg,” per the suit.
After Stavros’ departure, the show allegedly remained on location and “did not stop,” with producers continuing to “actively film and manage the show, and continued to exercise the same control over the remaining cast members that it had exercised before the incident,” according to the lawsuit.
The production then supplied and provided remaining cast members with cocaine and marijuana, “apparently to help calm and settle the cast” after Stavros’ injury, per the suit.
As a result of his experience, Stavros is requesting compensatory and punitive damages in excess of $100 million, including for past and future medical expenses, as well as for “past and future pain and suffering, mental anguish, and loss of capacity for the enjoyment of life.”
E! News has reached out to reps for the defendants AcunMedya and Skai TV for comment on the allegations in the lawsuit but has not yet heard back.
Following the May incident, AcunMedya spoke out on the “serious accident” to “clarify the exact circumstances under which the incident occurred.”
At the time, the company said in a statement, per theToronto Sun, that Floros was “diving without a surface marker buoy in an area frequented by tourist vessels” when a boat “accidentally struck him.”
Amid the incident, AcunMedya said the company had a swift response.
“From the very first moment, there was an immediate response to provide assistance and safely transport the injured contestant,” the statement continued, “while the competent port authorities are investigating the causes of the incident in order to fully determine the circumstances.”
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