Mid-broadcast, Kotb and Roker ditched the “Today” studio on Monday to drive to their respective destinations: NewYork-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. There, the broadcast journalists surprised the healthcare workers with bagels and flowers while spotlighting their lifesaving accomplishments.
At NewYork-Presbyterian, Kotb interviewed the nurses who cared for a baby named Artemis, who was born more than two months early and spent 136 days in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit. The veteran newscaster later delighted NICU nurses Jasmin Dendariarena and Lilly Fox by reuniting them with little Artemis — now 9 months old — and her grateful parents.
Meanwhile at Memorial Sloan Kettering Roker caught up with O’Dea Parson, a nurse who serves both in the hospital and as a major in the Army Nurse Corps. He also spoke with Jaclyn Stout, a nurse who cares for cancer patients and was herself diagnosed with breast cancer at 26 years old. She is now three years cancer free.