Savannah Guthrie was absent from the “Today” show Wednesday to undergo retinal detachment surgery, stemming from an incident last month involving 3-year-old son Charley, co-anchors Hoda Kotb and Craig Melvin announced during the morning broadcast.
“She’s had some laser treatment, so now she’s actually going through the surgery, and she’s going to keep us posted,” Kotb told viewers. “We wish for her a very speedy recovery.”
In late November, Guthrie called in to “Today,” revealing her son had thrown a toy train at her right eye, tearing her retina.
“Then I lost my vision in my right eye about 24 hours later, and then it turned out to be kind of serious. They were afraid my retina would detach. They told me to just take it easy and they’ve been doing a bunch of laser procedures,” the 47-year-old explained at the time, noting they were “trying to avoid having to do the full surgery.”
“It was so blurry from, not to get too gross, but there was so much blood inside the eye that it completely blocked my vision,” she said.
Guthrie also said the doctors were “essentially trying to weld back this tear in the retina very carefully, and really trying hard to avoid the retina detaching.”
Though Guthrie was given the all-clear to co-host this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the mother of two revealed in December she had undergone an estimated five laser treatments.
“The vision is getting better every day, but I’m still blurry,” Guthrie said last week. “Right now it’s like having one contact in and out. When it first started, though, it was like a complete blur. I couldn’t have seen anything.”
Ophthalmologist Dr. Annie Negrin also noted on the same episode of “Today” that retinal surgery could require patients to be face down for extended periods of time.
Prior to the surgery, Guthrie celebrated Charley’s birthday.
“Three years old and ready to paaaarrrrty,” Guthrie captioned the family shot Sunday on Instagram.
She also shares daughter Vale, 5, with husband Mike Feldman.