Savannah Guthrie Undergoes Eye Surgery After Suffering Retinal Detachment

Today - Season 66

A few weeks ago, Savannah Guthrie revealed she suffered a serious eye injury in a freak accident. Guthrey’s 2-year-old son, Charley, threw his toy train at his mom, which hit her in the eye. The incident severely damaged her retina.

"I lost my vision in my right eye about 24 hours later,” Guthrie explained on The Today Show in late November. “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.”

Unfortunately, Guthrie ultimately did have to undergo surgery to repair the damage. During The Today Show on Wednesday (December 11), Hoda Kotb gave viewers an update on Guthrie's health. “I’m sure some folks are waking up and going, ‘Where is Savannah this morning?'” she said. “She’d had some laser treatments, so now she’s actually going through the surgery. And she’s going to keep us posted, so we wish for her a very speedy recovery.”

Over the past couple weeks, Guthrie has been candid with viewers about her eye injury. She revealed she'd been undergoing laser treatments nearly every day to avoid having surgery. “The first laser I actually did I had to go under for, it was kind of an emergency,” Guthrie explained. “They rushed me in there, they shot me up with the big laser, and they were actually not sure it had worked at all, and they thought I was going to have to have this surgery.”

Ophthalmologist Dr. Annie Negrin spoke with People about how serious retinal surgery can be. Patients are often required to lay face down for one to three weeks after the procedure. “Basically the eye jiggles, and the retina is like saran wrap, so when you get hit, saran wrap can very easily tear, can get a hole in it, and that’s not a good thing,” Dr. Negrin said. “Laser, if you have a small enough tear, laser can basically weld down the outside of the tear to prevent more fluid from getting underneath and more of the retina detaching. So the laser is a really neat way to take care of it. If the tear is small enough, you don’t actually have to go to the operating room.”

Kotb promised to keep views in the loop about Guthrie's health. Hopefully, she's able to make a speedy recovery and return to Today ASAP!

Photo: Getty


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