Famed
Magician Recovering from Mauling
Famed Las
Vegas magician Roy Horn of the "Siegfried and Roy"
duo on Sunday signaled thumb's up after a second surgery to
relieve pressure on his brain, two days after being savagely
mauled by a white tiger during a performance, according to a
family friend. Horn remained in critical but stable condition
at University Medical Center in Las Vegas, about two miles north
of the Mirage hotel-casino.
A 600-pound
seven-year-old male tiger grabbed the performer's forearm about
halfway into the Friday night show at the Mirage,
witnesses said. When Horn tried to fend the tiger off with his
microphone -- hitting the animal in the face and saying "no,
no" -- it lunged and bit him on the neck and dragged him
offstage, causing massive bleeding, they said. Handlers sprayed
the tiger with a fire extinguisher to separate him from Roy,
who was conscious when he was rushed from the hotel to undergo
about two hours of surgery. 
Even as
he was being attacked by the tiger, he showed concern for the
audience by trying to remain calm and not do anything that might
provoke the tiger to attack anyone else. As Horn was being led
away by paramedics, he said: "Don't kill the cat,"
according to Amy Fink, a family friend who came by the hospital
after the surgery. Fink was one of 600 people who attended Horn's
birthday party Thursday evening in a showroom at the Mirage.
The entertainer turned 59 on Friday.
Late Saturday
night, Siegfried and Roy's longtime manager announced the S&R
spectacle, as they called it, would be suspended indefinitely.
Everyone who works for the show was told they should probably
look for a job somewhere else.
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