Seven months after she was hospitalized with a serious illness , Olympic gymnastics legend Mary Lou Retton said her doctors “still don’t know” exactly what illness continues to affect her lungs. Retton, 56, told “ Entertainment Tonight " in a story published Wednesday that she still needs to breathe from oxygen tubes in her nose every day as she continues her recovery. “They still don’t know what’s wrong with me,” she said.
“They’re calling it a rare form of pneumonia.” The retired gymnast spent about a month in the intensive care unit in October 2023 and said she suffered lasting damage. “My lungs are pretty scarred up and they’re gonna stay that way forever,” she said.
“I’m not a really depressed person, but this experience really changed me (mentally), and I’ve been struggling with that,” she said. However, she has tried to keep a positive mindset. “I have a lot to look forward to, and I know that,” she said.
Retton told “Entertainment Tonight” that her health challenges have “been hard.” “Give me a hip to rehab, give me a shoulder,” she said. “The lungs are a different beast.
” Retton’s daughters have been crucial in her recovery Retton’s daughters revealed that she was in the ICU “fighting for her life” with pneumonia on Oct. 10, 2023. At the time, Retton’s daughters asked for financial support in a crowd-funding page, explaining that Retton didn’t have health insurance.
Retton is mother to daughters McKe.