NewsWest 9
ODESSA - An itching and burning feeling is no way to wake up.
"Very frustrating. Up many nights itching, scratching, some of them are painful," Amanda Ward said.
Ward says she was staying at the Executive Inn in Odessa last week waiting for her apartment to be ready to move into. She claims all it took was one night and she was covered in welts, blisters and bug bites.
"Monday, we checked in to the Executive Inn and the next morning I woke up with blisters. I was up all night scratching and itching. We thought at first that it might be an allergic reaction," Ward said.
That's also what she thought happened a month ago, when she says she stayed at the same motel and woke up with the same rash. Except this time, she said she asked the motel management about it.
"She told me if I felt like I was getting bit by anything else to come let her know," Ward explained. "Well, I went back to the room and I felt--I mean, I was just itching real bad, so I went back there. She gave us the money back for the room that day. When the housekeepers came in to the room to clean it while I was checking out, they pulled the headboard and bed bugs just scattered everywhere."
That's when Ward contacted the Ector County Health Department, they told her to get a doctor's note. She went to the hospital and sure enough, they diagnosed her with Cellulitis, a bacterial skin infection that can be caused by bed bug bites.
Management at the Executive Inn declined to give us a comment but Ward says she is considering legal action.
"We are going to take civil action against them, because I mean, I've got doctor bills now. I've got a serious infection," Ward said.