LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The story grabbed headlines worldwide and has now led to a lawsuit against the Venetian Resort Las Vegas.
A California tourist who stayed in the Venetian’s Palazzo Tower over the 2023 Christmas holiday said he was stung by a scorpion — while he was sleeping — and woke up to a searing pain in his groin area.
“He felt multiple additional stinging sensations on his hand and groin area,” according to a lawsuit filed on behalf of Michael Farchi and his wife, Batia.
8 News Now first reported on this incident in March 2024, and since then, Farchi, 62, said the poisonous sting to his testicles has caused him to suffer PTSD and emotional trauma for which he continues to seek treatment. The incident has had ramifications on Farchi’s sex life, the lawsuit stated.
“I can also indicate, as you saw in the complaint, we’re also making a claim for loss of consortium for Mr. Farchi’s wife,” said Brian Virag of “My Bed Bug Lawyer,” one of Farchi’s California attorneys.
“Consortium” means that Farchi’s wife is making legal claims that their sex life hasn’t been the same since the sting.
According to court documents filed on Aug. 27, the hotel “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.”
Farchi shared with 8 News Now photos of the scorpion hanging on his underwear.
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A photo purportedly shows the scorpion that stung Michael Farchi during his stay at a Las Vegas Strip resort during the holiday season in 2023 | Photo provided by Brian Virag -
A photo purportedly shows the scorpion that stung Michael Farchi during his stay at a Las Vegas Strip resort during the holiday season in 2023 | Photo provided by Brian Virag -
A photo purportedly shows the scorpion that stung Michael Farchi during his stay at a Las Vegas Strip resort during the holiday season in 2023 | Photo provided by Brian Virag
“It really doesn’t matter, so much, how it got there,” Virag said. “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.”
In his lawsuit, Farchi claims that the Venetian Resort had prior knowledge of an “infestation of poisonous, deadly scorpions.”
“From our understanding, there was some ongoing construction at the time that this incident happened. Just before the incident happened and the time the incident happened,” Virag said.
Farchi shared a medical incident report with 8 News Now that he filed at the Palazzo on December 26. It showed his suite number and what he wrote to hotel staff that night, “bitten by scorpion on my groin/testicles.”
Farchi said the hotel staff didn’t take him seriously.
“(They were) just holding their groin area and laughing about it,” he said. “It was really embarrassing.”
Farchi went to Summerlin Hospital and was diagnosed with “Poisoning: Scorpion Sting,” according to the lawsuit.
Farchi was also treated at UCLA Medical Center, where doctors confirmed he was suffering from physical injuries, including erectile dysfunction, as a result of the scorpion sting, the lawsuit stated.
“Many effects on my family, my work – everything,” Farchi said in an interview with 8 News Now.
Farchi wants a jury trial, according to the 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.
8 News Now reached out to the Venetian Resort for comment on Thursday. This article will be updated should a response be received.
