8/28/2011 Disabled Las Vegas Man Deals With Bedbugs: Complaining For Months About Infestation At Siegel Suites Twain II

Lawrence Cabrera has been complaining for months to the management of the Siegel Suites Twain II location about bedbugs.

Finally, last week he called the Southern Nevada Health District, which found “significant bedbug infestation” at his studio apartment this week, according to a document he showed me. A Sun photographer documented the obvious infestation.

Cabrera, 62, said he was injured while working for the Union Pacific Railroad a decade ago and is on federal disability. He uses a wheelchair and suffers from nerve damage and asthma.

He’s a veteran of the U.S. Army.

Once the health department official told Siegel Suites management it had 14 days to eradicate the bedbugs, Cabrera was given a to-do list before the exterminators arrive Monday. He needs to bag his belongings, sweep, dust and vacuum his unit.

But of course, he’s unable to do so because of his disability. He says the management told him it will serve an eviction notice if he doesn’t do what’s required.

His family is in Colorado; he has a woman who comes by once per month to deliver groceries. Cabrera said that since he moved to Siegel Suites in February 2010, the ceiling of his bathroom collapsed, and he endured a break-in attempt while he was in the unit.

His rent is $650 per month.

When I alerted the health department about the threat of eviction, a spokeswoman said that on Monday morning she would be contacting Elder Protective Services and Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada.

Some background on bedbugs: As the Sun noted in 2008, they were mostly eradicated by the chemical agent DDT after World War II, but began to surface again in the late 1990s and are now thriving. They are six-legged, reddish-brown insects that are nocturnal, feasting on as much as three times their weight in a single human “blood meal.” They are famously difficult to exterminate, hiding in the tiniest crevices and surviving all manner of chemical agents. They are also highly mobile, so it’s possible they aren’t isolated in Cabrera’s unit.

I went to the Siegel Suites office to speak to a manager Saturday to ask if this is an appropriate way to treat someone, especially a disabled veteran, but the manager was not in.

I left a message, and will update you when they get back to me.

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