By RACHEL QUIGLEY
A Philadelphia woman who lost her thumb while she was participating in a G-String competition at a strip club has filed a lawsuit seeking more than $50,000 in damages, it was revealed today. Sarah Berry, 35, claims she was rehearsing for the ninth annual Diamond G-String Competition at Delilahs in July 2011 when a metal bar suspended from the ceiling sliced off her thumb.
She filed the suit in city court on Friday. It accuses Delilah's of failing to ensure the crescent-shaped metal bar suspended from the ceiling was properly designed, built, inspected and tested. It also claims the club host didn't warn users of the dangers of using the pole. According to the Philadelphia Enquirer, at the yearly competition, dancers use different types of props including swords, footballs, hula hoops, poles and g-strings to improve their chances of winning the $10,000 cash prize.
Her attorney, James D. Golkow, says his client wasn't a professional dancer and had entered the contest at a friend's invitation. He says her injury required surgery. Mr Golkow told the Enquirer: 'The show must go on, so they had the show without her, because she had amputated her thumb by then.'
The incident took place at the club on Spring Garden Street near Front, when a sharp edge on the apparatus - a crescent-shaped metal bar suspended from the ceiling - severed her thumb and she fell to the ground. She is seeking $50,000 in damages for 'pain and suffering, disfigurement, humiliation and embarrassment'. Her attorney specified that his client is not an exotic dancer or stripper but actually has acrobatic skills. She now works as a photographer.
'My client actually studied in school to train on this sort of aerial apparatus, with hopes of performing in Broadway shows and circus acts,' Golkow said. Managers at Delilah's didn't respond to a request for comment.
