Couple Wants $20 Million After Bedbug Attack
March 9, 2006 — -- A couple who said they suffered an attack from bedbugs at a New York hotel in July is suing for $20 million even though they returned to the same hotel a few weeks after the alleged incident.
Leslie Fox said she suffered more than 500 bites -- from her scalp to her toes -- after staying at the Nevele Hotel in the Catskills, and had to be treated with heavy steroids.
"To this day I am left with evidence of the bites in the form of pigmentation scars all over my body," Fox told "Good Morning America." She said her husband, Stephen Cohen, also suffered multiple bedbug bites.
An attorney from the Nevele Hotel was defiant about the lawsuit.
"I'd like to see the bedbug that caused the $20 million injury to this person," Joseph O'Connor said. "This very guest booked a room immediately after the bedbug incident, and was there two weeks later and stayed for approximately five days without complaint or harm, so I think it's a little ingenuous to allege they were damaged to the amount of $20 million and continue to have psychological damage as a result of staying the first time at the Nevele."
Fox said her husband was under contract to give a lecture and she did not want to be separated from him, which is why she returned to the hotel.
Alan J. Schnurman, Fox's attorney, said there were previous complaints of bedbugs against the resort.
"How dare they knowingly me and others at risk," Fox said.
Fox said she now travels with a flashlight and a magnifying glass to help her search for bedbugs.
"I could not spend a night in a strange bed without thoroughly inspecting it," she said. "Every sensation on my skin, I would wonder if something wasn't lurking in the room, under the bed, and attacking me again."
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