Details about Salman Rushdie‘s condition have been revealed after he was stabbed onstage.
The author’s agent, Andrew Wylie, told The New York Times on Aug. 12 that Rushdie was on a ventilator and could not speak.
“The news is not good,” the agent said. “Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged.”
Rushdie, 75, took to the stage at an event for the Chautauqua Institution in New York on Aug. 12. Soon after he arrived, a 24-year-old man allegedly jumped on stage and stabbed the novelist at least once in the neck and once in the abdomen, according to Major Eugene J. Staniszewski of the New York State Police, who spoke at a press conference on Aug. 12.
Several staff and audience members got the suspect onto the ground and a trooper took him into custody, police said.
Rushdie, who was married to Padma Lakshmi from 2004 to 2007, was airlifted to a trauma center and underwent surgery, per police.