Mary Lou Retton offers health update on Instagram
Mary Lou Retton is home with her family and feeling “forever grateful” as she continues to recover from a rare form of pneumonia that led to her hospitalization earlier this month.
The famous gymnast shared a statement about her condition on Instagram Monday, noting that she felt “beyond blessed” to be able to share her thanks.
“I am overwhelmed with all the love and support from the world as I fight. I am forever grateful to you all!,” she wrote.
Retton continued, “I’m with family continuing to slowly recover and staying very positive as I know this recovery is a long and slow process.”
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Mary Lou Retton health update
Retton’s Instagram post follows a similar update from one of her daughters, McKenna Kelley. Kelley shared last week that Retton was home from the hospital and in “recovery mode.”
“Thank you Jesus, thank you doctors & nurses, thank you to this loving community of support,” Kelley wrote on Instagram on Oct. 23.
Kelley had originally used Instagram to share news of her mom’s hospitalization and ask for donations to the family’s Spot Fund fundraising page. By the time of her first post on Oct. 10, Retton had already been in the ICU for more than a week.
“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,” Kelley wrote on the Retton fundraising page.
The family was able to raise more than $450,000 to support Retton’s recovery.
Mary Lou Retton family
Retton became an American icon during the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, where she won five gymnastics medals, including the United States’ first gold in the individual all-around competition.
“Having won more medals than any other participant at the 1984 Games, she was named Sportswoman of the Year and Amateur Athlete of the Year by the American press,” according to Olympics.com.
Retton went on to become U.S. gymnastics champion in 1985, but retired soon after. She then met University of Texas quarterback Shannon Kelley, whom she eventually married, as the Deseret News previously reported.
McKenna Kelley is one of Retton’s four daughters with Kelley. Retton, now 55, and Kelley divorced in 2018, according to CNN.
In her Instagram post, Retton asked for privacy during her recovery, but said that she’d be sharing more about her condition at a later time.
“When the time is right, I will be sharing more information about my health issues and hope I can help others who may face the same battle as me,” Retton wrote in her health update on Instagram.
