TODAY anchor Savannah Guthrie is hopeful for a quick recovery after her 2-year-old son hit her in the right eye with a toy last week, causing a tear in her retina and loss of vision.
Savannah has been out of work the past two days since a freak incident involving her son, Charley, who was sitting in her lap when he hit her with the pointy end of a toy train.
"Charley threw a toy train right at my eye and it tore my retina,'' she said during a phone check-in with her co-anchors on TODAY Wednesday. "It happened last week actually, and 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 was detached, so they told me to just take it easy."
Savannah has received multiple laser treatments for her injury and is hopeful to avoid surgery. The treatment, the most common method used to seal retinal tears, creates small burns that form scars around the wound, she said.
"They're essentially trying to weld back this tear in the retina very carefully, and really trying hard to avoid the retina detaching and avoid having to do a major surgery," she said.
NBC News medical contributor Dr. Natalie Azar said on TODAY Wednesday the outcome could be good if there's no detachment.
"Right now her vision loss is really apparently just from this vitreous hemorrhage, not hopefully from any detachment ... so hopefully that blood will resorb and she will regain full vision,'' Azar said.
Savannah said she had an emergency procedure done on Monday after working on TODAY with little vision in her right eye.
"At first they didn't think it had worked, and it looked like I was gonna have to have this surgery, but now it's looking more hopeful, and I'm actually still hoping I can do the (Macy's Thanksgiving) parade tomorrow,'' Savannah said.
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"I'm not supposed to jump up and down or anything because it's kind of like literally hanging by a thread," she added. "But I'm very positive because I think it's gonna be OK."
As for Charley, Savannah's youngest child is not really aware of the situation.
"He's 2, so he doesn't really know what he did, and of course I wouldn't want to make him feel bad about it,'' Savannah said. "I was FaceTiming with my mom to tell her, and he came running in and said, 'I did it! I did it!' He was very proud of himself."
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