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MANHATTAN--Claiming that she went from Madame Butterfly to Madame Bedbug, a soprano with the New York City Opera is suing the Hilton Hotel chain for $6 million, claiming that she was victimized by bedbugs during a stay in an Arizona hotel room.
According to a lawsuit filed by Alison Trainer of Manhattan, the singer suffered over 150 bedbug bites when she stayed in Hilton's Phoenix hotel. She claims that the experience traumatized her and that she now sleeps on the floor.
The litigation says that other than performing, she doesn't want to appear in public due to the bedbug bites.
Trainer was staying at the Phoenix hotel while she was performing with the Phoenix Symphony. After staying several days in the room, she began itching and noticed dried blood on the sheets and asked the housekeeping staff to change her sheets. Thereafter, she claims she awoke during the night to find her bed "infested". She claims that the hotel did nothing other than not charge her for that night after she reported "brutally conclusive proof" of the bedbug infestation.
According to the suit, Trainer suffered bites to her face, arms chest and neck. The suit says that she replaced her belongings and had difficulty sleeping. She claims that the bites were a "horrific" experience that caused her to lose her appetite, lose weight and made her uncomfortable about her physical appearance.
Last March, a Chicago couple who stayed at a Catskills report during the summer of 2005 sued the 700-room hotel for $20 million, claiming that the wife suffered over 500 bedbug bites during the stay.
Leslie Fox, 54, a Chicago booking agent, and her husband, Stephen Cohen, stayed at the Nevele Hotel in Ellenville during July 2005. She says that her "body and mind were scarred" because of the bites which she never felt. She says that on the third night of their stay, she noticed lesions all over her body.
Alan J. Schnurman, Fox's lawyer, said that the bed sheets were dotted with the woman's blood from the bites and specks of bug excrement. The couple was reportedly treated at the Ellenville Hospital.
The hotel's attorney had said the resort is routinely treated and inspected by pest control companies and that the hotel does not have bugs.
Schnurman says that when the couple reported that their room was allegedly infested with bedbugs, hotel management offered them two free nights which they declined.
In the last five years there has been a resurgence in bedbugs which have become a particular problem in hotels, motels, and hostels where there is a high rate of occupant turnover.
Bed bugs are blood-feeding insects. They are a light tan color, but turn dark reddish-brown once they have fed on blood. Before feeding, an adult bed bug is about ¼ inch long and flattened. Once engorged with blood, it swells in size. Bed bugs can be easily seen with the naked eye, but it's not easy to find bed bugs in a room.
Bed bugs can't fly, so they either crawl or are carried from place to place. Bed bugs or their eggs can hitchhike in a traveler's suitcase or clothing. Business people now routinely travel to and from countries where bed bugs are common, even in good hotels. The offspring of one pregnant female bed bug that crawls out of a suitcase can infest a room, and eventually other rooms nearby. Bed bugs usually feed at night and spend the day hidden. Their flattened shape lets them squeeze into narrow places in bed frames, headboards, in bedside furniture, behind pictures and switch plates, behind baseboards, under buttons on mattresses, in box springs, and in other cracks and crevices. Speckles of dried blood excrement can be found on bedding or places where bed bugs hide.
A bed bug feeds about once a week, usually for several minutes. It most often feeds on a sleeper's exposed skin. The bite is nearly painless and is not felt by most people. Some people have no reaction afterwards, but most people develop a hard bump with a whitish center which can itch for days. Although bed bugs suck blood like other human parasites, there has been no evidence that they spread diseases. Bed bugs can survive for several months between blood meals if there is no person or animal for them to feed on. http://www.pestcontrolcanada.com/INSECTS/bedbugs.htm 1-04-07
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© 2007 North
Country Gazette
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