03-09-2006, 07:53 AM
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#1 (permalink)
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Crazy
Location: buckle of the snow belt
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That warning about the bed bugs...
...you really had better take it quite seriously!
Warning: The pics of the wounds on the victim are yucky and will make you say, "ouch."
Quote:
Mar 7, 2006 10:15 pm US/Central
Woman Sues Hotel After Suffering 500 Bed Bug Bites
Mary Ann Childers
Reporting
(CBS) CHICAGO Last year, there were reports of serious bed bug infestations in dozens of states. Now, a Chicago woman is suing a hotel for $20 million after waking up one morning with more than 500 bed bug bites.
"My body felt as if it was on fire. I just wanted to tear it off,” Leslie Fox said.
Leslie Fox, a 54-year-old bookings agent, says that after four nights at the 700-room Nevele Hotel in Ellenville, New York last July, she awoke to find red, itchy welts all over her body.
"I had no idea what was happening to me. We noticed the blood on the bed. I became very upset and alarmed,” she said.
She and her husband – who was also bitten, but not so badly – tore the bed apart and found a swarm of bugs under the linens.
"The bugs were sent to the University of Illinois in Chicago and verified to be bed bugs,” said attorney Alan Schnurman.
When the couple reported to hotel officials that their room was infested, the officials offered two free nights but Fox and Cohen declined, Schnurman said, because they were just itching to leave.
Joe O'Connor, a lawyer for the resort, said he and his client had not seen the lawsuit so he could not comment. But he said the hotel has ongoing treatment and inspection by pest control companies that will certify the Nevele is bug-free.
O'Connor also said he had contacted the lawyer who filed the suit and was "trying to work things out."
Several other lawsuits have been filed in New York City and around the country because of alleged bedbugs attacks in hotels.
Bed bugs are bloodsuckers, but they are not known to transmit disease. Their bite is painless, and it can take up to nine days for welts to appear.
Redness and irritation fade after several days, but one dermatologist says each person reacts differently.
"While a bed bug may bite me and I get a very small reaction, it could bite you and get a large reaction,” said Rush University Medical Center Dr. Clarence Brown.
Fox, who has seen five doctors, says she’s still suffering. She says she’s scarred, stressed every time she sleeps in a hotel and afraid she may have unknowingly carried home bedbug eggs that may still hatch.
"A clean room is not necessary any guarantee of a safe room,” she said.
How can you protect yourself? It’s tough because bed bugs only come out at night. They hide during the day in mattresses, headboards, upholstery and inside walls and baseboards. They can fit in a crevice the width of a playing card, and they can live for a year without food. Most people don’t know they have them until they’ve been bitten.
O'Connor, the resort lawyer, noted that bedbugs have become a problem in many places across the country, even in upscale hotels. He attributed the bedbug's resurgence to international travel and the banning of some dangerous pesticides.
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10th sig ~> "How many a dispute could have been deflated into a single paragraph if the disputants had dared to define their terms?" -- Aristotle 
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