A scorpion bit a guest while he was sleeping at The Palazzo at The Venetian hotel, a lawsuit claims (My Bed Bug Lawyer).
A California man has sued a Las Vegas hotel after an unwelcome guest visited him in his bed.
Michael Farchi, 62, said in a lawsuit obtained by Vegas NBC affiliate KSNV that he and his wife were sleeping in a bed Dec. 26 at The Palazzo at The Venetian hotel when he woke up to “a sharp stinging sensation in his groin area.” He reached down and felt more stings on his hand, the lawsuit filed last week in Clark County District Court reportedly said.
Farchi called the hotel’s front desk but the employees who came to the room “merely laughed at him,” according to the lawsuit. He went to the hospital for treatment. Since then he’s also suffered from erectile dysfunction, the suit reportedly said.
One of Farchi’s attorneys, Brian Virag — of the “My Bed Bug Lawyer” law firm — told local CBS affiliate KLAS that the suit makes a claim for “loss of consortium,” meaning the incident has impacted Farchi’s sex life with his wife.
The lawsuit reportedly says the hotel’s “duty of care” is to provide a sanitary room “free of vermin, bed bugs, or similar things, including scorpions.” Virag also alleges that the hotel had prior issues with scorpions due to nearby construction.
Virag shared photos with Law&Crime that showed the scorpion hanging on Farchi’s underwear.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Farchi told KLAS that it felt like somebody stabbing him with a “piece of glass or knife.” He ran to the bathroom and undressed to see an orange scorpion hanging on to his Reebok boxers. Farchi said the not-very-nice scorpion stung him at least three or four times.
“Nobody staying in Vegas needs to exposed to deadly scorpions while they’re sleeping, let alone on their private parts, their testicles,” Virag, who is known for suing hotel and apartment complex owners with bedbug infestations, previously said in an interview with Los Angeles ABC affiliate KABC.
Virag told The Daily Beast that hotel staffers “were very dismissive and unapologetic,” though they comped the room for the night. Farchi and his family checked out of the hotel the next day.
According to the Mayo Clinic, “scorpion stings are painful but rarely life-threatening.” Bark scorpions, which typically range in length from 1.6 to 3 inches, can cause pain, tingling and numbness at the sting site, the Seattle Children’s Hospital reports.
The hotel released the following statement to media outlets: “The resort has protocols for all incidents and we can confirm they were followed in this incident.” It has not commented since the lawsuit was filed.
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