Vonnegut's condition improves

Noted author taken off respirator

February 8, 2000
Web posted at: 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT)

CNN.com Books Editor Jonathan D. Austin

(CNN) -- Novelist Kurt Vonnegut, hospitalized for nine days in a New York City burn unit following a fire at his home, has been taken off a respirator and his condition has been upgraded, a hospital spokesman said Tuesday.

"He's been upgraded to stable condition," said Jonathan Weil, a spokesman for Weill Cornell Medical Center. Vonnegut was in critical but stable condition all last week.

"This is the sort of good news that we've been praying for day by day," said Michael Barson, Vonnegut's publicist and an associate director of publicity at G.P. Putnam's Sons in New York. "I hope he's on the road to recovery and all of us will be able to see him soon."

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Vonnegut's condition was upgraded because he responded well enough to be taken off the respirator, Weil said, adding that a respirator is "standard burn procedure when you have inhalation injury."

Weil described Vonnegut's injury as being "like a burn to the lung" and was unable to say when the author might be released.

The 77-year-old writer, best known for his novels "Cat's Cradle" and "Slaughterhouse-Five," was hurt during a fire at his Manhattan home on January 30.

According to New York Fire Department officials, the fire was brought under control within 15 minutes and caused only minor structural damage.

Vonnegut had been watching the Super Bowl in his study but was downstairs when the fire started on the fourth floor, fire officials said.

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