David Henry Hwang Talks About What It Was Like To Be Stabbed In Fort Greene

Just over one month after being stabbed in the neck in an apparently random attack just feet away from his Fort Greene home, playwright David Henry Hwang wrote a first-person account in the New York Times today of the incident and the aftermath.

Entitled “The Time I Was Stabbed In The Neck,” the personal essay is incredibly sobering and chilling, although also tinged with dark humor, as when Hwang describes stumbling into a wall and car along South Portland Avenue, and, later, wanting to stay awake while in the ER of Brooklyn Hospital because “it occurred to me that defibrillation looks painful in TV shows and movies, so I had better stay conscious. I thought this might be how death happens — closing your eyes and just falling asleep.”

Another example: Hwang realizing, after the fact and during his recuperation period, that going home first to drop off the groceries he was carrying before walking to the hospital “was a bit over the top.” Although doing so also alerted his wife and daughter of his predicament, so it was also a good call.

Ultimately, Hwang did make to the hospital in time — first our own Brooklyn Hospital and then Mount Sinai Medical Center — and the doctors and surgeons did a fantastic job of stopping the bleeding and sewing up his severed vertebral artery.

I realize how incredibly lucky I am to have survived with no long-term damage, thanks to the skill of my doctors. I have learned that most people who have their vertebral arteries severed suffer a stroke and lose feeling in half their bodies.

A little more than two weeks after the stabbing, I was feeling pretty much back to normal. I have also been deeply moved by the outpouring of well-wishes, gifts, flowers, food and prayers from my friends, relatives and associates.

. . . It seems I get to live in this world a while longer. Despite the terrible attack, or because of it, I felt as if I had suddenly stepped into “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Just in time for the holidays.

But the attacker remains at-large. Seen in the moments before the attack in the above surveillance image from a nearby NYPD street camera, the suspect is wearing a dark hoodie, shorts, distinctive backpack, and short hair. A motive is unknown right now, but Hwang notes there have been some theories.

The person who stabbed me remains at large. Detectives from the police department first visited me in the E.R. at the Brooklyn Hospital Center, followed up when I was at Mount Sinai and are continuing to apprise me of their investigation.

Initially, they told me it never happens that an individual is attacked by an unknown assailant, except in the case of a mugging, which this did not appear to be since nothing was taken.

So they first sought to uncover some connection between my attacker and me, before concluding that this did, in fact, seem to be a random attack. The police unearthed a surveillance videotape showing my assailant — tall, skinny, wearing shorts and a distinctive backpack — though the angle reveals only the individual’s back.

Theories abound. Some believe that this was some kind of gang initiation. The police, however, think that sort of activity takes place in cities like Chicago and Detroit, but not in New York.

Because I’m Asian-American, others argue it may have been a hate crime. I have since learned that Asians are seen as easy targets because of perceived language barriers and a reluctance to report crimes.

If you recognize the suspect, contact Detective Anthony Barbee at 718-636-6547 or NYPD Detective Borough Brooklyn North at 718-287-3239.