Acrobat drops 13-feet and breaks neck after rig snaps during live performance at Canggu beach club, desperate bid launched to medevac woman out of Bali

Netizens are rallying to raise funds for an aerial acrobatic performer who broke her neck after falling 13 feet when the rig she was hanging from suddenly dropped down, during a live performance at a Canggu beach club.

Horrifying footage of the technical malfunction during the fateful performance at Finns Beach Club on Oct. 26 shows an acrobat, contortionist known as “Sam Panda” doing stunts from a suspended hoop. Without warning, the rig plummeted down and the woman landed directly on her head and neck.

A crowdfunding page called “Sam fell 13 ft & broke her neck” was launched on Nov. 2 for the woman on GoFundMe in a desperate bid to raise money for the woman’s medical evacuation to Singapore or Taiwan so she can undergo surgery by specialists.

“She somehow survived but has multiple fractures in her neck and a shard of bone stuck in her spinal cord which is preventing her from walking,” reads the GoFundMe page’s bio, set up by Olivia Leonie.

Panda did have a work permit and was insured by her employer, but the employer’s insurance won’t cover the medical evacuation itself, according to the crowdfunding page, which also noted that the acrobat’s case is time sensitive: “the longer Sam stays in Bali, the higher the risk that these debilitating injuries are irreversible.”

As of Friday afternoon, just over US$9,000 has been raised of the page’s US$40,000 goal, which the page claims is the amount quoted for an evacuation out of Bali.

Sam Panda posted an update to her Facebook page early on Friday morning, writing from the hospital.

“It’s 5 am, and I’m in the hospital still unable to sleep, so I’m posting this picture from a few weeks ago of me being silly on the floor in my house,” Panda wrote, continuing on that she will persevere and do “whatever I can to get myself back to me.”

Coconuts Bali has reached out to Finns Beach Club for comment on the matter. The beach club does not yet appear to have publicly acknowledged the incident.

The same beach club was embroiled in controversy just a couple of months ago when Grammy-winner Macy Gray gave a highly disappointing performance in Sept. 2017.