Mauled Illusionist Still Critical
Illusionist Roy Horn of the famed Las Vegas magic show Siegfried & Roy remained in critical but stable condition Monday after being mauled by a tiger during his show last week, and an associate said the prognosis had improved.
The University Medical Center said Horn's condition was stable early Monday.
Bobby Baldwin, CEO of the MGM Mirage Resort, the venue of the Siegfried & Roy show, said late Sunday that doctors told him that Horn could move his hands and feet and also gave a thumbs-up sign.
Horn, 59, suffered a severe wound to his neck when the 7-year-old male named Montecore attacked without warning Friday night in front of hundreds of people during a show.
Many in the audience initially thought the attack may have been an illusion. Kurt Baser recalled his reaction on the CBS News' Early Show.
"You have to realize five minutes prior to the tiger attack, we were watching women being sawed in half and their heads twisted around 360 degrees in boxes and you're at a magic show and these guys are illusionists," Baser said. "So when you're watching this, you just thinking it's all part of the act.
"Then what he did was he started whacking the tiger with the mic after it grabbed his arm and a couple of security guards and Siegfried came running on the stage and there was kind of a commotion and then, all of a sudden, you saw Mr. Roy tragically being dragged off the stage in the tiger's mouth," Baser continued.
"He had him around the shoulder and the neck area. But at that point, everyone in the audience, to my knowledge, everyone who we were sitting near, you just think, you know, he's just going to appear like he gets dragged off the stage by the tiger and appears up in the balcony or comes riding down the aisle on a tiger or something. You just assume it's part of the show."
On Sunday, more than 200 people, many of them show employees, turned out for a candlelight vigil at University Medical Center.
They chanted, "We love you, Roy!" and held their candles in the direction of his hospital room. They described the people who worked in the show as a "tight-knit family."
MGM Mirage officials said the show was "closed indefinitely" and told the show's 267 employees Saturday to look for new employment.
Horn, along with longtime partner Siegfried Fischbacher, have been a staple on the Las Vegas Strip for years, performing their magic show to sold-out crowds at The Mirage since 1990.
The illusionists, who put on one of the most well-known and expensive Las Vegas shows with their signature white tigers and lions, signed a lifetime contract with the resort in 2001.
The German-born pair perform six shows a week, 44 weeks per year and have been onstage in Las Vegas for more than 35 years. They have done about 5,700 shows since coming The Mirage in 1990.