Las Vegas Weekly

July 1, 2009 · 8:59 PM

Injured aerialist already recovering, but needs a boost

By John Katsilometes

Sonya Sonnenberg.

Photo: Courtesy

When the good news is you are not paralyzed, that leaves a lot of possibilities for bad news.

For Sonya Sonnenberg, the bad news is that on Sunday afternoon, she broke bones in both wrists, suffered a hairline fracture to her pelvis and, as football players often say, had her bell rung.

The good news is also that Sonnenberg is recovering and already receiving a lot of support, moral and financial.

The bad news is also that she needs that support desperately as she has no insurance coverage to help pay her rapidly mounting medical bills.

“Everyone has been so nice. So many people have offered whatever they can,” Sonnenberg said during a phone conversation today from a trauma care unit at Sunrise Medical Center, where she was expecting to be released this afternoon. “I’m really lucky in a lot of ways.”

Sonnenberg is the 19-year-old aerialist who was injured about an hour before Sunday’s “Ribbon of Life” Golden Rainbow production show at the Las Vegas Hilton Theater. She was donating her time to the benefit show as a former cast member of the cast of “Sin City Kitties” (which closed Saturday night, in an odd bit of timing) and as current member of “Fantasy” at the Luxor.

Of the incident, Sonnenberg says, “I don’t remember a lot.” But through her own foggy recollection and accounts of others who witnessed her fall, Sonnenberg pieced together what exactly transpired as she and “Sin City Kitties” performing partner Kevin Gibbs rehearsed an above-stage scene: She and Gibbs were working with a long, wide, silky strip appropriately known as a “silk.” From a height of 25 feet, Sonnenberg began sliding down the silk as Gibbs held the receiving end of the strip taut, about a foot from the stage. As Sonnenberg descended, she twisted off the silk and rolled to the side, falling to the stage and breaking her fall by extending her arms.

“I rolled out of the side and onto my wrists, side and head,” she recalls. “I hit my head and was knocked out for a while.”

Sonnenberg underwent surgery at Sunrise on Sunday afternoon, having plates and pins inserted into both wrists. Both of her hands are now in casts. “I’ve got a hairline fracture in my pelvis, which is more painful than anything but not as bad,” she said. “I could have been dead or paralyzed, so I feel very lucky.”

Sonnenberg was not covered by worker’s compensation at the time of the accident, as she was volunteering her time and was not hired as a paid performer (that she was donating that time to provide assistance to those who need medical care is a sad irony not lost on her or the event organizers). She has no other form of health insurance. But with the help of Michael Chambers, Glenn Medas and Brigid Little of Platinum Productions, which produced “Sin City Kitties” and produces “Sin City Bad Girls” at the Hilton, a Paypal account has been set up for anyone who wants to contribute to a fund to help pay for her medical costs. Send donations to Deanoofua@yahoo.com and type Sonya Sonnenberg in the subject line. Here is the Paypal link. Or, send donations directly to MH Talent, ATTN: Sonya Sonnenberg, 3650 S. Jones Blvd., Suite 7, Las Vegas, NV 89103.

Sonnenberg expects to be wrapped silkily and airborne again, maybe as soon as in two or three months. “I’m very young and healthy, but I’m also impatient, and I’m used to being very active,” she says. “Right now I’m of the mindset, ‘Try to stop me.’ ”

Share This