A contestant on the Greek edition of Survivor is taking legal action and suing for $100million (£74m) after losing his leg in a traumatic incident while filming. Stavros Floros, who was 21 at the time of filming in the Dominican Republic, was involved in a spear-fishing accident when he was caught by a tour boat’s propeller, significantly injuring his right ankle and partially amputating his left leg.
Accident details
Fellow contestant Emmanouil Malliaros noticed the boat carrying 20 tourists and allegedly yelled for Floros to move out of the way. Before he could, the vessel’s propeller ‘struck Floros’s legs’, and his left leg was never recovered from the water.
According to his filed lawsuit, Floros has claimed that the conditions of filming in May resulted in his injuries. Documents obtained by E! News say contestants were ‘required, incentivised, and expected’ to spearfish in open waters as a ‘core and mandatory element’ of the game show, due to participants being given ‘minimal rationed food’ and being expected to source their own via ‘fishing and foraging’.
Safety concerns
Floros claims that production ‘did not establish any marked, roped-off, buoyed, or otherwise protected safe zone’ for them to fish in but instead directed them to hunt in an area of the ocean ‘heavy’ with tourist boat traffic. He adds that there was no way for contestants to ‘independently summon help’ due to their phones being taken away in accordance with the programme’s format, preventing them from ‘protecting themselves in the event of an emergency’, despite production’s ‘duty’ to ‘supervise, protect, and rescue’ the cast.
Floros further says that no ‘safety personnel, safety boats, spotters, or other measures’ were implemented, which may have warned them of approaching tour boats in the area. His suit adds that TV bosses ‘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’.
Aftermath and response
Despite the severity of Floros’s injuries, which led to him being transported to a Miami hospital where he received treatment for 61 days, the show allegedly ‘did not stop’ production. Producers are alleged to have continued ‘actively filming’ the show while Floros ‘underwent multiple surgical procedures’, including the repair of his right ankle and surgical amputation of his left leg. His legal filing accuses production of providing remaining cast members with cocaine and marijuana to ‘calm and settle’ them after the ordeal.
The hefty compensatory and punitive damages Floros is seeking, he says, are for his ‘past and future pain and suffering’, plus ‘mental anguish and loss of capacity for the enjoyment of life’. Defendants AcunMedya and Skai TV have not publicly commented on the lawsuit. In the immediate aftermath of the incident, AcunMedya said the response was ‘swift’ from the company. ‘From the very first moment, there was an immediate response to provide assistance and safely transport the injured contestant,’ their initial statement said, adding that ‘the competent port authorities [were] investigating the causes of the incident in order to fully determine the circumstances’.
Skai TV, the Greek station where Survivor Greece airs, also suspended broadcasts of the series. The station said: ‘Despite the fact that the production of Survivor is carried out exclusively under the control and responsibility of AcunMedya, Skai is closely monitoring developments on the participant’s health and will contribute in every possible way to his treatment, as well as to any hospitalisation and rehabilitation care that may be required.’
Following his filing, Floros told TheWrap: ‘I want the world to know the truth: that I went onto a reality show and ended up with only one leg at 22 years old, having felt like I was slowly dying. I want people to know that they didn’t look after us, that I haven’t received the proper support from the production company, and that no matter what happens, you must always keep your head held high and keep faith in God.’ He now regularly posts updates on social media as his recovery continues.
