Mary Lou Retton’s daughter recalls saying goodbye to Olympian in ICU

Mary Lou Retton’s daughters were bracing for the worst. Retton, a legendary former American Olympic gymnast, endured a harrowing health scare as she battled a rare form of pneumonia and was hospitalized in October, with daughter McKenna writing at the time that her mom was “fighting for her life.” In an emotional “Today” invterview with Hoda Kotb , Retton and one of her daughters, Shayla, recalled just how close Retton was to not winning her battle.

Retton’s lungs were hardly visible on X Rays, and her medical team considered putting her on life support and told Shayla and her sister, McKenna, that they weren’t sure if she’d make it through the night. “McKenna and I put our hands on her and we said a prayer. … It was crazy,” Shayla said.

“I just remember loving on you and giving you a hug and McKenna kept saying things like ‘it’s OK, you can go.'” “They were saying their goodbyes to me,” Retton added. Retton, who has since been released from the hospital and is still recovering, won the all around gold medal, the silver medal in the team and vault competitions and the bronze medal in the uneven bars and floor exercises at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

But even with her fame, she revealed that she has struggled with her finances and did not have health insurance when her recent health battle arrived. “When COVID hit and after my divorce, and all my preexisting [conditions], I’ve had over 30 operations, orthopedic stuff, I couldn’t afford it,” Retton said.

“But who was even gonna know this was going to happen to me?” Shayla and McKenna organized a GoFundMe to help cover her health costs, and Retton said she has since gotten health insurance. “We were just thinking, if she pulls through, the last thing we want her to have to think about is paying off these bills or doing anything like that,” Shayla said..