Posted on: August 30, 2024, 08:54h.
Last updated on: August 30, 2024, 08:54h.
The unfortunate subject of one of the biggest stories to come out of a casino resort this year is now suing the Venetian Las Vegas over his injuries.
Michael Farchi of Agoura Hills, Calif. claims he and his wife, Batia, were staying in the Venetian’s Palazzo Tower over the 2023 Christmas holiday when he was stung in the testicles while asleep.
Upon investigating the source of the intense stabbing in his groin, according to Farchi, he turned up one of the last things anyone ever wants to see hanging from their underpants.
Now, Farchi, 62, is suing the casino resort because, he claims, the sting has given him erectile dysfunction, PTSD and emotional trauma for which he continues to seek treatment.
According to court documents, filed on Aug. 27 and first reported by KLAS-TV/Las Vegas, the Venetian “owed a duty of care to Plaintiffs to provide a clean, safe, and sanitary room . . . that was free of vermin, bed bugs, or similar things, including scorpions.”
As for how the scorpion got in Farchi’s bed, “it really doesn’t matter so much,” Farchi’s attorney, Brian Virag of California’s My Bed Bug Lawyer, told KLAS. “The fact that it was there and they were on notice that there were prior issues of scorpions at the subject property that’s obviously the main point here.”
The lawsuit claims that the Venetian Resort had prior knowledge of an “infestation of poisonous, deadly scorpions.”
Farchi was treated at Summerlin Hospital, according to his lawsuit, where he was diagnosed with “Poisoning: Scorpion Sting.” Doctors at UCLA Medical Center then diagnosed him as suffering from trauma, including erectile dysfunction, as a result of the sting.
Farchi told KLAS that when he filed a medical incident report with the Venetian on Dec. 26, the resort’s staff didn’t take him seriously.
“(They were) just holding their groin area and laughing about it,” he said. “It was really embarrassing.”
All uncomfortable humor aside, scorpion stings can be serious injuries. A six-year-old girl died of one in Morocco in 2021, despite medical intervention.
Farchi seeks a jury trial, according to his lawsuit, to assess damages for past and future medical expenses, pain and suffering, mental distress, anguish, loss of companionship and support, and loss of enjoyment of life.
If the Venetian responds to Casino.org’s request for a comment on the lawsuit, we will update this story with that comment.
