Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2003 | 11:12 a.m.
Injured entertainer Roy Horn was transported Tuesday from University Medical Center to an undisclosed medical facility, officials said.
A source said that magician Horn, who has been in critical condition since he was bitten by a Siberian tiger during an Oct. 3 performance at The Mirage, was airlifted to Southern California. The source said he was taken to UCLA Medical Center.
UMC spokesman Dale Pugh did not return phone calls seeking comment. Dave Kirvin, Las Vegas publicist for Siegfried & Roy, also declined comment. But Kirvin released a statement from Bernie Yuman, the duo's manager.
Horn, 59, was transported to another facility "for further evaluation," Yuman said.
"All of us in the Siegfried & Roy family are encouraged by his remarkable will and progress during this challenging time," Yuman said. "I would like to express our sincere appreciation to the doctors, nurses and staff of the trauma center at University Medical Center. They are extraordinary professionals and their remarkable efforts in this situation have earned our deepest gratitude."
Yuman promised to provide updates on Horn's condition but also repeated his request that the entertainer's privacy be maintained.
Yuman also said that he and Siegfried "are both grateful and awed by the outpouring of love and prayers from Las Vegas and around the globe, and know that this support has played a crucial role in Roy's recovery."
Dr. Lonnie Hammargren, a Las Vegas neurosurgeon and former lieutenant governor, said earlier this month that fellow neurosurgeon Dr. Derek Duke performed an operation on Horn to relieve swelling of his brain that was caused by a stroke.
The procedure performed on Oct. 4, according to Hammargren, was a decompressive craniectomy that involved temporary removal of a hand-sized portion of Roy's skull in order to help relieve the swelling. In similar operations the skull fragment is typically reattached once the swelling subsides.
UMC subsequently launched an investigation to determine whether Hammargren's comments to the media violated the privacy portion of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), with possible fines of up to $250,000 or 10 years in prison.
But Hammargren, who said the operation on Horn saved his life, defended his public comments, stating he was merely responding to what he said was faulty information about the procedure as reported by the New York Daily News.
"I wish him well, and I'm sure he'll get good care," Hammargren said this morning.
He said he would not speculate as to why Horn was transferred from UMC.
"I'm not going to second guess," Hammargren said.
Under the medical privacy provision, which went into effect in April, patients who are admitted to a hospital have the option of requesting that their admission to the facility be kept from the public. Under that scenario, it is possible for a patient to be admitted to a hospital but not be listed when the media or members of the public make inquiries.
A spokesman for Med Flight Air Ambulance Inc., which has been used to transport patients from UMC to other facilities out of state, said that under the federal act, he could not confirm whether his company was used to transport Horn.
There has been speculation that Horn was transported to UCLA Medical Center but a spokeswoman there said that no one by that name had been admitted there. A spokeswoman for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, another prominent Southern California hospital, also said that Horn had not been admitted there.
Dr. James Wilburger, chairman of neurosurgery at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, who has conducted clinical research on decompressive craniectomy operations, said today he could not think of a medical reason why Horn would have been transported from Las Vegas.
"I know that Las Vegas has a top-of-the-line medical center, so I don't know from a medical standpoint why he was moved," Wilburger said.
Wilburger said he would assume that since it has been more than three weeks since the operation on Roy that he would have been stable enough to be transported by air.
"The only thing you worry about is the pressurization of the aircraft," Wilburger said.
Wilburger, who attended medical school with Dr. Neil Martin, the head of neurosurgery at UCLA, said that if Horn was transported to that medical center, he would be in good hands. Wilburger said UCLA Medical Center is one of the nation's leading facilities for patients who have suffered from both stroke and trauma.
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