Compensation is being sought after the woman alleges management was negligent over issues raised. <\/p>\n
LARGO, Fla. \u2014 The new year just started, but Patricia Shields said the effects of the last year still linger for her.<\/p>\n
Shields said two of her toes had to be amputated because of infections from spider bites while living in her old apartment in Largo. She is now suing apartment management.<\/p>\n
“That was horrifying. I was never so scared in my life,” Shields said.<\/p>\n
In a lawsuit filed late last year, Shields is claiming negligence from Grand Oak Apartments and other defendants. She is seeking monetary compensation as a result.<\/p>\n
Shields said she noticed the spiders within two weeks of moving into the apartment November 2024. Being on disability and on Section 8 housing at the time, she said she had lost her cottage home from Hurricane Helene months prior.<\/p>\n
“I was happy, and then I kept getting bit over and over and over again,” Shields said. “It was always in the bathroom.”<\/p>\n
Images Shields shared include oozing wounds, along with a swollen foot. 10 Tampa Bay News has not verified the type of spider, but Shields said medical records and statements from doctors claim they did stem from a spider.<\/p>\n
Shields said what she thought would be a quick trip to urgent care led to staff calling an ambulance for her and later being told amputation was necessary.<\/p>\n
“The doctor came in and he goes, ‘We have to or you’re going to end up losing your whole foot or your leg,'” Shields said. “I thought it was a joke.”<\/p>\n
In her lawsuit, Shields claims she reported the issue to property management, including bites she sustained, but alleges the property management did not effectively respond.<\/p>\n
According to court filings, defendants in the case deny the allegations and also state the complaint fails to plead with specificity, among other issues raised. A motion to dismiss was filed or in the alternative, motion for more definite statement.<\/p>\n
10 Tampa Bay News called and left messages to Grand Oak Apartments for comment on the lawsuit and will update this article once a response is provided by defendants.<\/p>\n
David Knox, the attorney representing Shields, directed 10 Tampa Bay News to review the case pleadings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Compensation is being sought after the woman alleges management was negligent over issues raised. LARGO, Fla. \u2014 The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-108683","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-st-pete","9":"tag-st-pete-headlines","10":"tag-st-pete-news","11":"tag-st-petersburg","12":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","13":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}