Salman Rushdie health update: Author taken off ventilator and ‘able to talk’ following New York stabbing attack

Novelist Salman Rushdie was removed from the ventilator and could talk again, almost two days after being stabbed in New York.

While talking to news outlet The Guardian, the 75-year-old writer's agent, Andrew Wylie, gave little information on his health and stated:

"The injuries are severe. But his condition is headed in the right direction.”

Rushdie was attacked on August 12 while he was preparing to give a lecture at a conference near Buffalo, New York. As per Deadline, the attacker climbed up to the stage and stabbed him almost 15 times while surrounded by a huge crowd.

It was previously reported that the writer suffered multiple injuries to his eyes, neck, chest, thighs, and stomach, resulting in a critical health condition. Wylie had stated that Salman might lose an eye as a result of the attack.

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Salman Rushdie's assailant pleaded not guilty

Hadi Matar was charged with second-degree attempted murder and assault in connection with the August 12 attack. However, when he was arraigned at the Chautauqua County Jail in New York a day after the attack, he pleaded not guilty and was placed in custody without bail.

Matar, 24, is from New Jersey and the son of parents who emigrated from Yaroun, Lebanon, according to the BBC.

For years, Salman Rushdie has faced death threats in connection with his 1988 novel, The Satanic Verses. Several Muslims have condemned the book as blasphemous and anti-Islamic, forcing the author to flee for nearly a decade.

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran's then-leader, issued a fatwa calling for Salman Rushdie's death in 1989, with a $3 million reward for bringing the writer's head.

The controversial novel has already been burned and banned in Pakistan, India, and many other places. Salman Rushdie was born in 1947 in Mumbai, India to Negin Bhatt and Anis Ahmed Rushdie. He attended boarding school in England before enrolling into the University of Cambridge to study history.

Rushdie has lived in Manhattan for nearly two decades. He recently spoke with the German magazine Stern about his death sentence, sounding unconcerned about his safety. He said:

“A fatwa like that is a serious matter, fortunately the Internet didn’t exist back then. The Iranians had to fax the fatwa to the mosques. That was a long time ago, you know, but now my life is relatively normal again. I think many people today live with similar threats as I did then. And the fax machine that was used against me is like a bicycle against a Ferrari compared to the internet.”

Rushdie was scheduled to speak at the event about how the US treats such authors. In the most recent attack, Rushdie's interviewee Henry Reese, who owns an NGO that protects authors who have been persecuted, suffered a minor head injury.