How did a weekend visit to baby Vale (and her mom, Savannah Guthrie) result in Willie Geist getting seven stitches?
Hint: The accident involved alcohol — but not a drop had been drunk by the time Willie was rushed to the emergency room.
It all began when Willie and his wife, Christina, paid a visit to the home of Savannah and her husband, Mike Feldman, so Willie's kids could finally meet 7-week-old Vale. The group had a lovely dinner, but that's when things got a little gory.
Willie and Mike disappeared into the kitchen to open a bottle of bourbon for an after-dinner drink, but the two men had trouble getting the wax off the cap, so they reached for a large serrated knife.
Savannah, who appeared Monday with Vale and Mike on TODAY's Take, said she sensed something had gone awry when 15 minutes passed without a peep from the kitchen. Then Willie emerged.
“He’s holding his hand [in] a big towel. Blood. It's a gusher," she recalled. "And then he said, ‘Girls, we're going to urgent care.' Willie had to get 7 stitches.”
Luckily, Mike knew the fastest route to the hospital after tons of practice the previous month while waiting for Savannah to go into labor. The men arrived at the hospital within minutes, and Willie's hand was sewn up within a half-hour.
"He had the reaction that a little boy would have," Mike said, describing the moment the accident occurred. "He looked at me for my reaction. I was afraid to give him one. And then when we both recognized [what happened], he didn’t cry, but he was like, 'OK, we better go.'"
Willie acknowledged he was lucky the injury wasn’t worse.
“I missed tendon and nerve," he said, although the knife "shaved off a little knuckle."
Despite all the ER drama and trauma, Willie described the evening as a wonderful visit.
"Knife injuries aside, they have the happiest house,” Willie said of the Guthrie-Feldman home. “And they’re such a good mother and father, and she is such a sweet baby. It was just a joy to watch them — until I sawed my finger off. It was going so well up until then.”
Savannah said Willie is completely welcome back at her home at any time.
“Absolutely," she said, although she noted she will require advance notice. "Obviously, we’re going to have a first-aid kit standing by.”
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