
By: Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — An OSU student, who claims she was repeatedly bitten by bat ticks in her dorm room in Patchin Hall, has filed a negligence lawsuit against the university’s regents, who denied any responsibility for her alleged injuries, according to their answer filed in district court during Christmas week.
Mary Ledbetter of Tulsa is seeking $175,000, the maximum amount of damages allowed under the Governmental Tort Claims Act, the provisions of which the defense maintains she has not met, including exhausting all administrative remedies.
The lawsuit filed two days before Thanksgiving by the Gill law firm in Tulsa alleges, “Mary began her first week on campus in the fall of 2019 in the Patchin Hall dorm. During the first week, she heard little feet noises running back and forth in her dorm room ceiling in the early morning hours,” which she said she reported to the community mentor on her floor.
“On Aug. 23, 2019, she woke up with unknown red bites on her face. On Aug. 24, 2019, the bites were all over the parts of her body not covered with clothing;” her boyfriend called her parents in Tulsa and took her there for the weekend, the lawsuit alleges.
“Mary took her bed sheets and pillowcase home to wash since there were brown and red spots of blood (and/or what they now realize could have been some type of animal waste or blood) smeared on them,” which she did not have while at home for the weekend, the lawsuit alleges.
“On Aug. 27, 2019, Mary woke up in her dorm room with new bites on her body. Since her sheets were freshly washed, the bat ticks were clearly deeply embedded in her dorm room and/or mattress. After just one night back in her dorm, the bat ticks had crawled back into Mary’s sheets and continued to bite her,” the lawsuit alleges.
The next day she called her mother, who said to call Pest Control, which “found a bat tick on Mary’s bed and immediately identified it as a bat tick and the cause of Mary’s bites,” the lawsuit alleges. The Pest Control employee “sprayed Mary’s room and hallway, then assured her it was fine to sleep in her dorm room and that the bat ticks were gone,” the lawsuit alleges.
“The next morning, Mary woke up with more bites on her face, after being assured by Pest Control at OSU the bat tick infestation in Mary’s room was resolved after being sprayed,” the lawsuit alleges.
“Mary told the OSU Health Clinic that a doctor in Tulsa recommended she have immediate preventative rabies shots, since she had direct contact with multiple bat ticks and bites that had been on bats, as a preventative measure,” the lawsuit alleges. ” A nurse at the OSU Health Clinic, that should have been familiar with the rabies risk that bats pose, told Mary that she did not need the rabies shots,” which she insisted on receiving, the lawsuit alleges.
She received a series of rabies shots and four immune globulin shots, the latter of which “caused Mary to suffer from fevers, shaking, a sore body, hot flashes, cold flashes and fatigue,” the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit alleges, “OSU was negligent when it failed to remove the bats from Patchin Hall; in failing to prevent and eradicate the bat tick infestation from the dorm rooms after repeatedly being on notice of the bat problem since 2017; and in failing to warn students of the bats and bat tick problem in Patchin Hall before move-in day,” which OSU’s defense attorney adamantly denied.
One of the community mentors in Patchin Hall “told Mary that a dead bat was found in the laundry room during the first week of school, and said it is a known fact that bats are often found in Patchin Hall,” the lawsuit alleges.
“Mary continued to wake up with bites after her room was sprayed twice. OSU finally moved Mary to the Atherton Hotel on campus for one night while OSU again sprayed Mary’s dorm room for a third time. Due to her hesitation to return to her dorm room, OSU allowed Mary to move into Village D dorms for a trial period.
“Mary went back to Patchin Hall two weeks after she moved out of her dorm room and into Village D in order to retrieve the last of her belongings. When she went into the dorm room, she found more bat ticks (one still living and multiple dead) inside her former dorm room on the windowsill,” the lawsuit alleges.
“Mary made the decision to remain in Village D because she mentally and physically could not live in Patchin Hall,” according to the lawsuit, which noted that OSU requires freshmen students to live on campus.
“Many of the students in Mary’s sorority were talking about Mary and the rumors spread so far that it was running rampant around campus,” which resulted in her suffering ridicule and emotional distress, the lawsuit alleges.
In the answer from the board of regents to the lawsuit, OSU staff attorney Clint Pratt admitted that the student’s room was sprayed on Aug. 28, 2019, after a bat tick was discovered there. OSU admitted “a bat tick had been discovered in another building on campus 14 days prior. This was the first report of bat ticks known to OSU, and the bat tick was sent to the Entomology Department for identification, as bat ticks had not previously been found at OSU and are not native to Oklahoma,” the regents’ answer alleges.
OSU admitted that the student was seen by University Health Services on Aug. 28, 2019, and that “rabies treatment was not recommended as a course of treatment, as it was determined that ticks do not transmit rabies,” the answer to the suit alleges.
OSU denied there was a bat infestation at the university, but admitted “a small number of bat sightings on campus are reported annually,” which are investigated and acted upon if necessary, the answer alleges. OSU denied it was in any way negligent or liable for the student’s alleged injuries and asked that the case be dismissed. A hearing date has not yet been set.
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