Mill Valley Woman Awarded $3.25M After Casino Mishap

A 71-year-old Mill Valley woman was awarded $3.25 million in damages this week after she suffered severe chemical burns at a Nevada casino by drinking a liquid she thought was water but was actually a caustic cleaning solution.

A San Francisco Superior Court reached the civil verdict Monday and doled out the award to cover the medical bills and pain and suffering for Julia Ellis, according to her San Francisco-based attorney Christopher Dolan.

Dolan said Ellis, who works as a property manager, was injured on Dec. 2, 2007, while she was staying at Harveys Lake Tahoe casino. Dolan said Ellis asked a bartender for water and was given a Harrah's-branded bottle of water. Ellis immediately began screaming in pain upon drinking the liquid, falling to the ground, according to the complaint.

Ellis was rushed to a nearby hospital and was found to have sustained chemical burns to her esophagus and stomach. It was later determined that an Harveys employee had poured the solution from its larger storage container into an empty, unmarked water bottle and left it in the kitchen, where it was then inadvertently served to Ellis, Dolan said.

A call to Caesars Entertainment, which controls Harveys, was not immediately returned.

"This is a tragedy that never should have happened and that could have been avoided," Dolan said.

--Bay City News Service contributed to this report.