Al Roker returns to the 'Today' show for the first time since his 'life-threatening' health crisis: 'I lost half my blood'
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- Al Roker returned to "Today" after a two-month absence due to health issues.
- Roker appeared on the show alongside his wife, ABC News correspondent Deborah Roberts.
- Roberts said that it was a "major, major thing" for Roker to be back on the show.
Al Roker returned to the "Today" show for the first time after two months away due to health issues, appearing alongside his wife, ABC News correspondent Deborah Roberts.
Appearing on "Today," Roker said that his heart was "bursting" and that he was "thrilled" to see his coworkers.
"It's not lost on us that this is a major, major thing for Al to be here. He is a living, breathing miracle," Roberts said on the show. "He really is, and I have to say, I'm not overstating it I don't think, Al was a very, very, very sick man. And I think most people did not know that."
In November, Roker was hospitalized due to blood clots in both his legs and lungs, Insider previously reported. His illness later led to him not taking part in NBC's coverage of the annual Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City for the first time in 27 years. On "Today," Roker's gastroenterologist Dr. Felice H. Schnoll-Sussman called his illness a "life-threatening experience."
Roker said the blood clots, which his doctors thought occurred following his September 2022 COVID-19 case, were one of "two complicating things" in his case alongside internal bleeding.
"I lost half my blood," he said. "And they were trying to figure out where it was."
Roker said that his medical team discovered "two bleeding ulcers" during surgery, resectioning his colon and removing his gall bladder.
Roberts said that during the process, she worried whether or not her husband would "make it to Christmas." However, she recalled one incident in the hospital in which a "gaunt" Roker, speaking in a "very scratchy voice," told her that he wanted to make a spatchcocked turkey for Christmas.
"I just knew at that point that that will, that drive, is so strong," Robert said.