Savannah Guthrie Suffers Eye Injury, Temporarily Loses Vision After Accident with Son's Toy Train

The Today show anchor is working to regain vision in her right eye after a freak accident tore her retina

Savannah Guthrie is on the mend after suffering an eye injury.

The anchor called into the Today show on Wednesday to explain her absence earlier this week, revealing that she suffered an eye injury while playing with her 2-year-old son Charley.

“Charley threw a toy train right at my eye and it tore my retina,” she said. “It has a really pointing edge and he threw it right at me.”

Guthrie, 47, said the accident left her temporary blind in her right eye.

“It happened last week, actually, and then I lost my vision in my right eye about 24 hours later,” she said. “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.”

“I really did lose my vision in my right eye,” she continued. “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.”

The mother of two said she’s working closely with doctors to try and “weld back” her retina, adding, “It’s looking more hopeful.”

While Guthrie said she’s optimistic about her eye, she warned that her attendance at the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is still up in the air.

“I’m actually still hoping I can do the parade tomorrow,” she said. “I’m not supposed to jump up and down because it’s kind of literally hanging by a thread. But I’m very positive because I think it’s going to be okay.”

Savannah-Guthrie1
Savannah Guthrie/Instagram

An expert on the show helped explain that if doctors can get the blood to subside before the retina fully detaches, Guthrie should be able to regain her full vision.

Guthrie said Charley doesn’t fully comprehend the situation — which is probably for the best.

“He’s 2, so he doesn’t even know what he did,” she said. “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!'”

“He’s a bruiser!” she joked.

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