CELEBRITY
Olympian Mary Lou Retton Recovering At Home After ‘Fighting For Her Life’ In Hospital
marylouretton/Instagram
Former Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton is back home and recovering after being hospitalized with “a very rare form of pneumonia,” according to her daughter, McKenna Kelley.
In an updated posted on Instagram on Monday, Kelley, 26, said her mom is now at home and in “recovery mode.”
“We still have a long road of recovery ahead of us, but baby steps. We are overwhelmed with the love and support from everyone. Grateful doesn’t scrape the surface of the posture of our hearts,” she wrote. “Thank you Jesus, thank you doctors & nurses, thank you to this loving community of support.”
Retton’s daughters made a plea for help earlier this month on the crowdfunding site Spotfund, hoping to raise money to cover medical expenses because she lacked health insurance.
“On behalf of my sisters and I, we need y’all’s help,” Kelley wrote. “My amazing mom, Mary Lou, has a very rare form of pneumonia and is fighting for her life. She is not able to breathe on her own. She’s been in the ICU for over a week now. Out of respect for her and her privacy, I will not disclose all details. However, I will disclose that she not insured.”
The fund had raised more than $459,000 as of Tuesday.
“Unfortunately, like many of other millions of Americans, not having healthcare insurance isn’t a problem until it’s a problem – and usually by that time its a big problem,” said medical expert Alice Benjamin. “As an emergency medicine nurse practitioner, I see people who wait until the very last minute to seek care for things that hindsight most times could have been treated with oral antibiotics at home if identified early by seeing your PCP. But when you don’t have insurance, a PCP can be costly paying out of pocket for visits, lab tests, imaging and prescriptions. And when an infection goes unchecked it can spread and become more severe.
“Its unknown if Retton was current with her pneumonia, flu or covid vaccines, which she was likely eligible for. Thankfully, her daughters were able to raise money for hospitalization and for the recovery journey she has ahead of her after such a severe respiratory illness,” Benjamin added.
Retton, 55, was the first American woman to win an Olympic Gold medal in gymnastics. At the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Calif., Retton won Gold in the all-around, and took home a total of five medals.
In order to win the all-around gold, Retton needed a perfect 10 on the vault to beat Romanian gymnast Ecaterina Szabo. Retton also took home silver medals in the team and vault events and bronze medals in floor exercise and uneven bars.
Soviet gymnasts were dominant in that era, but the Soviet Union boycotted the Los Angeles Games. It would be another 20 years before an American gymnast would win the Olympic Gold medal in the all-around.
Retton’s 1984 showing made her an American sports icon, and she went on to make numerous film and television appearances. In 1997, she was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame, and in 2020, she was inducted into the Houston Sports Hall of Fame.
TMX contributed to this article.
