Salman Rushdie breaks silence after knife attack left him fighting for his life
Salman Rushdie has revealed he has suffered nightmares since a knife attack left him fighting for his life.
The 75-year-old was airlifted to hospital on August 12, 2022 after Hadi Matar, 24, from Fairview New Jersey, US, brutally attacked him at the Chautauqua Institution, where Sir Salman was due to speak.
The author has broken his silence for the first time since an alleged assassination attempt carried out as he prepared to deliver a speech.
Seven months on, Sir Salman has told how his life has been irreversibly changed, being left blind in one eye, his lower lip left drooping to one side, and severe never damage in his left hand.
He has also lost more than three stones in weight.
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And since the attack Mr Rushdie has confessed he has suffered nightmares, which could be linked to the horrific incident.
He told New Yorker: "There have been nightmares—not exactly the incident, but just frightening. Those seem to be diminishing.
Medics and doctors rushed to the stage to help save the author (Twitter)"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.”
He also said the attack has left him struggling to type due to the injuries sustained in his fingertips.
The author was asked if he could type, he revealed: “Not very well, because of the lack of feeling in the fingertips of these fingers.”
Mr Rushdie joked that people like him better now that he has survived an assassination attempt.
Hadi Matar stabbed Rushdie at a literary event (Balkis Press/ABACA/REX/Shutterstock)He spoke about how many previously complained about his existence.
“People didn’t like it. Because I should have died,” he said.
“Now that I’ve almost died, everybody loves me. That was my mistake back then. Not only did I live, but I tried to live well. Bad mistake. Get 15 stab wounds, much better.”
“It’s very nice that everybody was so moved by this, you know?” he continued.
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“I had never thought about how people would react if I was assassinated or almost assassinated.”
Mr Rushdie said that despite his injuries he is slowly making progress.
He added: "Well, you know, I’ve been better.
"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."
The writer said he has struggled since the attack to write again (Getty Images)“I’ve always tried very hard not to adopt the role of a victim.
“Then you’re just sitting there saying, ‘Somebody stuck a knife in me. Poor me,’ Which I do sometimes think."
The writer said he has struggled since the attack to write again.
“There is such a thing as P.T.S.D., you know,” he said.
“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.”
He said he spent the past seven months at his New York home healing while watching his fair share of “crap television”, admitting he did not take to the Netflix documentary on Meghan and Harry.
He was airlifted to hospital where he spent 6 weeks (AFP via Getty Images)“The banality of it,” he said.
When asked about his alleged attacker, Hadi Matar, the novelist described him as an “idiot.”
“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," Sir Salman commented.
Matar, 24, was arrested and charged with one count of second-degree attempted murder and one count of second-degree assault in relation to the attack.
He pleaded not guilty, and his trial will likely occur in 2024.
The author's works have prompted death threats (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)Matar, from Fairview, New Jersey, has reportedly refused to say if the fatwa issued by the late Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini against Sir Salman led to the attack.
On the day of the attack, the author was sat down alongside moderator Henry Reese, 73, who was a newbie when it came to readings.
Mr Rushdie tried to reassure him as he took a deep breath and looked at the crowd.
However, when he turned to Mr Rushdie he suddenly saw Matar had attacked him, which he first thought was a prank.
Mr Reese told the New Yorker: “I thought it was a prank, some really bad-taste imitation attack, something like the Will Smith slap.”
Salman Rushdie was due to give a talk at Chautauqua Institution when he was attacked (AFP via Getty Images)But despite the attack he feels he is fortunate to still be alive. He said: "I’m lucky. What I really want to say is that my main overwhelming feeling is gratitude.”
Mr Reese saw the blood on the author's cheek and soon realised it wasn't a joke.
The moderator added: “It then became clear there was a knife there, but at first it seemed like just hitting.
"For a second, I froze. Then I went after the guy. Instinctively. I ran over and tackled him at the back and held him by his legs.”
Matar stabbed Mr Rushdie dozens of times and he quickly turned to Mr Reese and stabbed him which left him with a huge gash above his eye.
A doctor, who had breakfast with the author that morning, was sitting in the second row of the talk and immidetely sprung out of his seat and ran up the stars.
The man, who has not been named, tried to snatch the knife of the attack and helped save Mr Rushdie's life as police were called and led the attacker off the stage.
Mr Rushdie was bleeding from his stab wounds. From the right side of his neck and face, his left hand, and his stomach.
He was still conscious but a firefighter, along with a four doctors, rushed to his side as two of the medics held up his legs to help with his blood supply.
While a fireman placed his hand on the right side of Mr Rushdie's neck to try and stop the bleeding along with the bleed next to his eye.
The fireman told Mr Rushdie: “Don’t blink your eye, we are trying to stop the bleeding. Keep it closed.” Rushdie was responsive. “Okay I agree,” he said. “I understand.”
His left hand was bleeding heavily which forced one of the doctors to cut off the sleeve of his jacket and tie the wound with a clean handkerchief.
However, within seconds it was full of blood as the doctor was left stunned. He "squeezed the tissues as hard as I possibly could."
Mr Rushdie was in so much pain with his hand he asked" “What’s going on with my left hand? It hurts so much!”
Emergency services arrived and immediately put the author on an I.V drip and put him onto a stretcher as they wheeled him out the theatre.
He was helicopter to Level 2 trauma center, Hamot, part of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, in Erie, Pennsylvania.
The author was in hospital for six weeks and since his release he has stayed at home unless it is for trips to the doctors.
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