Three companies have agreed to pay a total of $24.1 million to settle claims brought by the family of a man who was rendered “infant-like” after a debilitating brain injury he suffered during the construction of the Conshohocken Rowing Center.

According to court papers, plaintiff Leon Oates, a construction worker who focused on caulking, broke through a drop ceiling tile during the construction project and fell about 15 feet, before falling another roughly 15 feet down a concrete staircase. The fall left Oates, 41 at the time, in a “semi-conscious, infant-like state, entirely unable to walk, communicate, or care for himself,” court papers filed by his wife and daughter said.