'Today' Show Co-Host Savannah Guthrie Undergoes Retina Surgery After Suffering Major Eye Injury

Yikes! You may have noticed that Today Show co-host Savannah Guthrie has been absent from her usual position on the popular morning news program. Last month, the broadcast anchor called-in on Wednesday, Nov. 27, to explain why she was not at work.  

Unfortunately, the 47-year-old suffered a serious eye injury before the Thanksgiving holiday that left her temporarily blind in her right eye. Savannah phoned-in to the Today show the following week to give an update to viewers and her fellow colleagues on how she was doing post-accident. So, what happened to Savannah, and how did the anchor suffer extreme trauma to her right eye?

During the November broadcast, Savannah revealed that she suffered a major eye injury while she was playing with her son Charley, 2. “Charley threw a toy train right at my eye and it tore my retina,” she told viewers. “It has a really pointing edge and he threw it right at me.”

The mother of two continued: “It happened last week, actually, and then I lost my vision in my right eye about 24 hours later.” Adding, “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 to avoid having to do the whole surgery.” 

Savannah explained that she completely lost vision in her right eye from all of the blood behind her eye. “It was so blurry from — not to get too gross — but there was so much blood in my eye that it completely blocked my vision,” she said. The long-time anchor said things are “looking more hopeful,” as the doctors are working to “weld back this tear in the retina” before it detaches.

Unfortunately, after undergoing numerous laser treatments on her eye, Savannah will have to get the surgery. On Dec. 11,  Craig Melvin and Hoda Kotb announced on Today that their colleague was undergoing retina detachment surgery. "She's had some laser treatment, so now she's actually going through the surgery,'' Hoda explained. "We wish for a very speedy recovery." 

On Dec. 3, Savannah updated viewers on her current prognosis, revealing: "The vision is getting better every day, but I'm still blurry." Adding, "Right now it's like having one contact (lens) in and (one) out. When it first started though, it was like a complete blur. I couldn't have seen anything." 

Following the accident, the Today show co-host explained that her toddler does not entirely understand what happened to his mom. “He’s 2, so he doesn’t even know what he did,” Savannah said during the November broadcast. 

“I wouldn’t want to make him feel bad for it. He hears me talking about it and he has no idea. I was FaceTiming with my mom to tell her and he came running in and said, ‘I did it!'” She jokingly added: “He’s a bruiser!”