Savannah Guthrie has undergone her third eye surgery in 17 months in the hopes of finally repairing the damage caused when her son Charley threw a toy train at her and tore her retina.
The 49-year-old Today host did not appear on the show on Tuesday morning, and later revealed on Instagram that her absence was due to ‘one last teeny tiny eye surgery’, which took place at New York Presbyterian.
Mom-of-two Savannah’s latest procedure comes more than a year after she suffered a temporary loss of vision and a torn retina when her youngest child Charley, now four, ‘threw a train’ at her. She has already gone through retinal detachment surgery and a follow-up cataract surgery, as well as multiple laser treatments to try and repair the serious damage caused by the accident.
‘Back to business’: Savannah Guthrie has undergone a third surgery on her eye, 17 months after her son Charley threw a toy train at her and tore her retina
Whoops! The Today anchor’s eye trouble started when her now-four-year-old son Charley accidentally threw a toy train (pictured) that tore her retina in late November 2019
However Savannah seems to think that this latest procedure marks the end of her lengthy medical journey – which was further delayed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw her cataract operation postponed until July of last year.
Sharing a black-and-white photo of herself modeling a clear eye patch following the latest surgery, Savannah wrote: ‘One last teeny tiny eye surgery and I’m back in business!!!’
She then paid tribute to her ophthalmologist, Dr. Ashley Brissette, for helping to return her to full health.
It has been nearly a year since Savannah’s last eye surgery, which took place in July 2020 following several postponements amid the pandemic.
At the time, the Today anchor admitted that she had been quietly struggling with her vision, which had been left ‘distorted’ and ‘blurry’ as a result of her injuries.
‘”It’s been a long time, I’m super excited,’ Savannah said of the procedure. ‘I feel like it’s Christmas morning because if they remove this cataract I’ll really be able to see, and I’ve had a hard time seeing.
‘[My vision] is kind of distorted and then it’s got a wavy thing, and now I have this cataract, which is a big blurry spot. Once they remove that blur, I think it will be a lot better.’
Anticipation: In July, Savannah shared her excitement at the prospect of undergoing surgery to correct her cataracts, a procedure that had been postponed as a result of the pandemic
Hard recovery: Prior to the cataract procedure, Savannah had to undergo retina reattachment surgery, and several rounds of laser treatment
The TV host hastened to add that her symptoms were incredibly ‘common’ – and that many people who undergo retina reattachment surgery end up with cataracts.
‘So apparently if you have that retina reattachment surgery, it’s very, very common to get cataracts, so happened to me,’ she explained.
A cataract is a cloudy area in the lens of the eye that occurs when proteins start to break down and clump together. Cataracts can make a person’s vision blurry, hazy, or less colorful and lead to trouble with reading or doing everyday activities.
Most cataracts are age-related, according to the National Eye Institute (NIH), but they can also develop for other reasons, including an eye injury and eye surgery.
Cataract surgery is incredibly common — so common that Savannah’s co-host Carson Daly jokingly asked her if she was going to have the procedure live on air.
‘Um, no, because they’re slicing my eye, so I didn’t think that our viewers really wanted to see that,’ Savannah said with a laugh.
Savannah’s fellow co-anchor Hoda Kotb shared that she has witnessed her friend struggling to see over the past year.
‘A hard time is kind of an understatement. I don’t know if you guys have noticed, but Savannah, sometimes she holds her papers like this,’ Hoda said, pulling her paper up to her face, ‘and she’s reading with one eye.’
Too cute: Before heading into surgery, the mom took to Twitter to share a sweet photo of her son Charley playing the game Operation
The surgery only takes about a half hour, and Savannah hopes to have a short recovery and be back to work in a few days.
‘I won’t be back tomorrow because I’ll have a bandage, but maybe later in the week,’ she told her co-stars.
Before heading into surgery, the mom took to Instagram and Twitter to share a sweet photo of her son Charley playing the game Operation.
‘Headed off for cataract surgery!’ she wrote. ‘This was an expected complication after retina detachment. Very hopeful to be seeing [100 per cent] and back at work this week!’
The Today star’s eye trouble started when her son Charley accidentally threw a toy train that tore her retina in late November 2019. Although her initial surgery restored her temporary vision loss, her eyesight hasn’t been what it used to be.
‘My eyesight is not great,’ she told People in April. ‘I have to have a couple of follow-up surgeries, which is unfortunate but not unexpected.’
Savannah, whose surgeries had been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, explained that her eyesight ‘isn’t where it was,’ and she thinks ‘it’s getting worse.’
‘Eventually I’m hopeful that when everything turns to normal, I’ll be able to schedule those surgeries and I’m hopeful there’ll be a big improvement,’ she said. ‘I don’t think my eye will ever be the way it once was, but I think it will be much improved.’
While she had to wait until the summer to schedule her follow-up surgeries, she admitted that she was incredibly grateful to have had her initial surgery when she did.
‘It saved my eye,’ she said. ‘If I hadn’t been able to have that surgery, I think I would have probably lost my vision in that eye. So yes, I’m very, very grateful and this is just one those things. It’s an inconvenience. It’s a story that keeps going on.’
Doctors initially hoped they could repair her torn retina with multiple laser sessions, but it was ultimately decided that surgery was her best option.
‘The hardest part is sitting still, keeping your head down. You kind of get a neck and a backache,’ she said during her lengthy post-surgery recovery. ‘I can’t say it was easy…but it’s manageable and it’s all going to turn out OK.’
Not over: Savannah (pictured after her eye injury in December) had to postpone her follow-up surgery due to the pandemic
Fixing the damage: Savannah’s retina is pictured before (left) and after (right) her surgery
When Savannah returned to work after the new year, the Today show interviewed her surgeon, Dr. Donald D’Amico of Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City, to better explain what he did to repair her torn retina.
‘Her retina was torn. The retina lines the inside back of the eye like wallpaper,’ he said. ‘When the retina is torn, it begins to fall off the back of the eye and you lose vision.
‘Fortunately for Savannah, the tear was at the side of her retina and not the very center, so the prospect for her central vision to return is very good.’
A gas bubble was placed in the back of Savannah’s eye to help her retina slowly reattach to the back of her eye, which is why she had to lie face down for most of the day.
‘You think of how you would put a poster on the wall,’ Dr. D’Amico said. ‘We’ve all put a poster on the wall with glue. You have to hold it for a few minutes or seconds in order to get it to stick.
‘The bubble holds the retina reattached in the eye, and as the bubble goes away by the body absorbing it, the laser treatment and the freezing treatment provide the permanent scar that keeps it stable.’