Salman Rushdie Shares First Photo Since Violent Stabbing, Resulting in Vision Loss, & More Devastating Injuries

Author Salman Rushdie has shared his first photo after he was attacked on stage and stabbed “about a dozen” times before a planned speech in August 2022 in western New York.

A few months ago, his literary agent Andrew Wylie said in a statement (via CNN), “[His wounds] were profound, but he’s [also] lost the sight of one eye … He had three serious wounds in his neck. One hand is incapacitated because the nerves in his arm were cut. And he has about 15 more wounds in his chest and torso. So, it was a brutal attack.”

In a new piece for the New Yorker, his injuries were described more in a more in-depth manner.

Keep reading to find out more…

When the attack happened, he had blood from stab wounds to the right side of his neck, face, left hand, and abdomen. Four doctors happened to be there, plus a firefighter, who all helped.

“Don’t blink your eye, we are trying to stop the bleeding. Keep it closed,” the fireman told him, to which he says he responded, “O.K. I agree. I understand.”

He eventually was rushed to the hospital where he underwent immediate surgery. He ended up hospitalized for six weeks.

For the interview for the piece, he met with the writer in December 2022, months after the attack. He lost 40 pounds, has to have the right lens in his eyeglass blacked out as he’s now blind in that eye. He has a droop to one side of his lip, scar tissue on the right side of his face, and, the attack left a nerve in his left hand badly damaged.

“Well, you know, I’ve been better,” he told the New Yorker. “But, considering what happened, I’m not so bad. As you can see, the big injuries are healed, essentially. I have feeling in my thumb and index finger and in the bottom half of the palm. I’m doing a lot of hand therapy, and I’m told that I’m doing very well.”

About his recovery, he shared, “There have been nightmares—not exactly the incident, but just frightening. Those seem to be diminishing. I’m fine. I’m able to get up and walk around. When I say I’m fine, I mean, there’s bits of my body that need constant checkups. It was a colossal attack.”

“There is such a thing as P.T.S.D., you know,” he added. “I’ve found it very, very difficult to write. I sit down to write, and nothing happens. I write, but it’s a combination of blankness and junk, stuff that I write and that I delete the next day. I’m not out of that forest yet, really.”

About the man who attacked him, Hadi Matar, 24, Rushdie stated, “I don’t know what I think of him, because I don’t know him. All I’ve seen is his idiotic interview in the New York Post. Which only an idiot would do. I know that the trial is still a long way away. It might not happen until late next year. I guess I’ll find out some more about him then.”

The New Yorker published a photo of Mr. Rushdie to go along with their piece. The photo went viral as it was shocking, but he then uploaded his own selfie for his fans. You can see that photo below.