Al Roker gave new details about the health crisis that kept him away from the Today show for two months upon his celebrated return to the NBC morning news program on Friday.
With wife Deborah Roberts by his side, the 68-year-old weatherman opened up about about his condition, revealing that he underwent an intense 7-hour surgery to “correct a bunch of internal stuff,” as he put it.
Roker had no idea his condition was so serious when he first saw doctors in early November to address a few stomach pains.
It quickly escalated into a frightening range of medical issues that left officials baffled at first and sent Roker to the hospital not once, but twice. “Look, I had two complicating things,” Roker said on Today. “I had blood clots, which they think came up after I had COVID in September. And then I had this internal bleeding going on, I lost half my blood. They were trying to figure out where it was.”
“Al was a very, very, very sick man ... most people didn’t know that, “ explained Roberts, 62. “Two doctors led this brilliant team — it was a team — who had to figure out what was happening. He was a medical mystery for a couple of weeks. And it was the must tumultuous, frightening journey we have been on.”
Roker was being treated at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. Through surgery, his medical team discovered he had two bleeding ulcers. Doctors resectioned his colon, took out his gallbladder and operated on his duodenum, part of the small intestine.
“I went into for one operation, I got four free,” joked Roker. “So I got that going for me.”
Fortunately, Roberts — a correspondent for ABC News — took the reins as the lead in Roker’s care, working directly with doctors.
“Thank god for Deborah,” he said on the third hour of Today. “She basically shielded me from all of this. I’m a living example of ignorance is bliss. I was able to put all my energy into recuperating because I didn’t know how bad this was. ... I thought I was doing good!”
“It’s not lost on us that this is a major, major thing for Al to be here,” Roberts said on Today. “He is a living breathing miracle. And I’m not overstating it, I think.”
She went on to detail the moment she knew Roker was going to be okay. “Al went through a lot of tests, a lot of scopes,” she said. “There was just so much that had to be done, and a major major surgery, if you don’t mind me saying. And we were just on pins and needles, every day. I kept everyone abreast — our family, you all. And Al and I were sitting there one day in the hospital… and through this very scratchy voice, and he was so gaunt and exhausted, he said, I’m going to make a ‘spatchcock turkey for Christmas.’ And I didn’t know whether to burst into tears or just to beam.”
“That was the moment for me, and it will always be the moment for me, that this man — I mean, I’m sitting here hoping he’s going to make it to Christmas and this man, he wants to make a turkey,” she recalled. “I just knew at that point, that will, that drive, is so, so strong.”
