Photo by John Schreiber.
A motivational speaker and business consultant is suing the Beverly Hilton hotel, alleging he contracted a dangerous antibiotic staph infection during a facial treatment at the hotel’s spa in 2016.
Larry Poe’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit also names as defendants Hilton Worldwide Inc. and Aqua Star Barber Beauty Spa. The suit alleges negligence and seeks unspecified damages.
A hotel representative did not immediately return an email sent Thursday for comment on the suit filed Tuesday.
The suit states that Poe, who lives in Texas, was a guest on Feb. 23, 2016, at the Beverly Hilton. Poe travels nationwide to give speeches and attend events, the suit states.
During the facial treatment at the Aqua Star, an aesthetician used tweezers to try and pull a hair from the left side of Poe’s upper lip, the suit states.
“Upon being poked by the tweezers, (the) plaintiff experienced a sting of pain in his left upper lip and a small wound opened,” the suit states.
The worker applied a cream to Poe’s lip, but the lip swelled and continued doing so for the next three days without any signs of healing, according to the lawsuit.
Poe was admitted to a hospital four days later and was diagnosed with MRSA, an infection caused by a type of bacteria that’s become resistant to many of the antibiotics used to treat ordinary staph infections, the suit alleges.
Poe was isolated in quarantine at the hospital for four days, the suit states. He was left with a scar on the left side of his lip that is noticeable, negatively affecting his appearance as a motivational speaker, the suit states. He also had to take time off from his speaking engagements, the suit states.
— City News Service
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